Cardiff City, Diabetes and the Community

Today I was invited to a 'Health Brainstorm' event at Cardiff City Football Club, along with other health and community leaders based in Cardiff and the surrounding areas. The aim of the event was to bring together those engaged in the community, to collaborate on creating innovative and engaging ways to involve different sectors of the population in sport.

Cardiff City Football Club

Within the introduction to the event, I learnt much about the Cardiff City Community Foundation and the great work the organisation already does to engage members of the community, not just in football. But in education, health promotion and training. I was particularly inspired by the development of a walking football team, a fantastic way to bring sport and socialising together in a skillful way of exercising.

Cardiff City - Pitchside

The brainstorming activity itself was a unique opportunity to sit together as a multidisciplinary community team, to discuss the barriers and successes to our communities engaging in sport. I was invited to represent people with diabetes, and joined others in a sub-group representing the dental sector, cardiovascular disease charities and community food, research and education projects. It was incredibly valuable to be able to sit down together and consider new ways to get the Cardiff community engaged in health and physical activity. In truth there were so many innovative and engaging ideas put forward from each participant in the room, that I'm very much looking forward to working together in the new year to help bring them to fruition.

From the perspective of diabetes engagement I considered this topic to be multifaceted. We have people who are at risk of type 2 diabetes within the community and could potentially benefit from identification of their risk factors, education and awareness. However, we also have people already in the diabetes community who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and that may wish to engage in physical activity as it could benefit their condition. Then of course we have type 1s, who from my own personal experience, I know could benefit from all that sport has to offer, with the right support and education around their condition to help succeed in sport.

As you can see, it was a very thought provoking event and we finished the day with a tour of the football stadium. It was amazing to see the behind the scenes areas and the football pitch, and I left feeling motivated and inspired to kick the new year off to a healthy start for the community!