Last year, Diabetes Ireland celebrated its golden anniversary. From humble beginnings in 1967, in recent years the charity has expanded hugely. To mark the occasion, a history book charting the first 50 years of the charity was produced. The book is a testament to the work of many people who have given their time and energy to Diabetes Ireland and to the development of diabetes services in Ireland, from successfully campaigning for the introduction of free insulin and medications for all people with diabetes (via the Long Term Illness Scheme), to the removal of blanket private motor car insurance loadings to the changing landscape of diabetes treatment today.

From a service provision, in 2017 demand on our services continued to increase drawing more on our limited staff and financial resources. The number of people attending our Care Centres increased, the number of enquiries online and offline and the demands for up to date information that goes with them has increased significantly. We continued to target high risk groups through our health promotion activities by increasing their knowledge and awareness of diabetes and encouraging them to make positive lifestyle changes.

2017 service highlights are:

• 341,770 visitors to www.diabetes.ie.
• 10,420 facebook followers and 3,911 twitter followers.
• 2,760 people contacted our national diabetes helpline
• More than 12,000 people attended our Diabetes Care Centres in Dublin and Cork
• 2,350 people attended 20 public education meetings to share their experiences and hear from a range of diabetes healthcare professionals on all aspects of effectively living with diabetes on a daily basis.
• 432 people with Type 2 diabetes attended 33 CODE education programmes nationwide.
• 91 teenagers attended National Teen Activity Day
• we delivered 39 Type 1 diabetes education/awareness presentations to teachers and pupils in schools nationwide.
• We held 131 health promotion/screening events in 2017. 8,943 people accessed these events of which 646 (7.2%) were referred to their GP for further screening for Type 2 diabetes.
• 4,000 people completed our Type 2 Diabetes Risk Assessment online with over 2,000 classified as either high or moderate risk.

2017 saw the charity make a loss of €83,551. With costs increasing and Government grant support funding remaining static, we simply need to generate more funds in 2018 to ensure we can continue to maintain all our services which provide direct care, education and support to thousands of people with diabetes and their families each year.

Professor Hilary Hoey, Chairperson, Diabetes Ireland said, “expanding our services, can only happen with the support of our own community. In relation to the number of people with diabetes in Ireland, our membership base is relatively tiny. Through the work of the charity over 50 years, all people with diabetes receive free care and medications for their condition plus many other benefits which would not have happened without the advocacy work undertaken by Diabetes Ireland.

While there are many ways to support Diabetes Ireland, we want all people with diabetes to become a member so we can mutually support each other. Our goal is to support, educate and motivate the diabetes community. The charity needs your support to do that.” Read the full report here

Become a member today click here