The Diabetes Support Forum was a long time in the making. Although we have just (as of 14th November 2010) celebrated our second birthday of going live, it actually formed in the mind of its founder more than two years prior to that. Kati Admin is a Type 1 diabetic who has had the disease for well over 30 years, and yet she was aware that she had never actually met another person with Type 1 in her entire life! Type 1 is relatively rare in the population – about 1 person in every 300 will develop it at some stage compared to about 1 in 25 for Type 2, so perhaps it's not that surprising that encounters are rare. Even many doctors will never have had a Type 1 case to deal with, so often their knowledge is sketchy and out of date.
Kati had been a member of diabetes forums which were, on the whole, US-based, where although many of the problems were similar the differences in healthcare systems made a lot of the postings less relevant to a UK visitor. She decided that we needed a forum of our own here in the UK, one that was simply laid-out, without the clutter of advertisements, and that would bring together all people affected by diabetes in the UK under one ‘roof’. No distinction was to be made between types on the message boards so that segregation did not occur – everyone got to read each others posts and would learn those things we all have in common in our attempts to manage our diabetes.
A long campaign then began to get Diabetes UK on board with the concept. Plans were made for funding, software selected, design was commenced and testing took place. A couple of people got wind of the forum’s existence before the official launch, hence the appearance of our first member nearly a month before launch (see Number 1 – First Member). Our longest active member to date is ukJohn, who heard about the new forum when Kati mentioned it on a US forum – he’s still posting regularly, parrot on shoulder!
And thus the forum was launched! The first few months saw a rapid increase in membership, building to over 600 by the end of 2008 with around 3,500 posts in that time. Currently we get around 150 new members a month, with around 10-12,000 posts. In order to make sure that things ran smoothly and to make the forum a safe and welcoming environment, Kati appointed Moderators, selected from the regular posters of that period, myself being one of those invited to perform the role.
During this period, Kati had learned that she was pregnant! As her pregnancy progressed it became apparent that she was not able to devote the time she wished to manage the forum and so she asked that I step in as Administrator. I’d already acted as Admin whilst Kati was on holiday and was happy to take on the responsibility so Kati could relax and enjoy the remaining couple of months of her pregnancy. And so, in late June 2009, the baby was born! This post was the official announcement, with a picture of newly-born Zach, and was warmly welcomed by all the members. Since the birth, and with changing circumstances at home including a new job, Kati has been unable to return to her role as Admin, so has officially handed it over to me. I cannot thank her enough for what she has created – I have made so many friends and been given a wonderful purpose in life that was distinctly lacking when I was writing commission calculating programs for financial institutions! So many thanks to Kati, who I know still reads regularly, for all your hard work in those early days – although it probably seems like a doddle now that you are juggling a baby and a new career! Not literally juggling a baby, I hasten to add!
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