The Live Wire

London Debate

The Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust (IDDT) will be holding its annual London debate on Tuesday November 10.

The motion up for debate is whether people's attitudes need to change before people with diabetes have real treatment choice.

Dr Matt Kiln and Mrs Jenny Hirst, who felt that there needed to be far greater support for patients and carers of those with Type 1 diabetes, founded IDDT 15 years ago. And even today, they still believe that too many people think that diabetes is just something that is "self-inflicted" because the patient is overweight and/or eating the wrong foods and that by changing one's lifestyle, diabetes can be avoided. In fact, Type 1 diabetes cannot be avoided.

So the charity aims to raise the issue further by holding a high-profile debate.

In the spirit of all debates the event will be fun and light-hearted, but of course the serious underlying message is that IDDT is concerned about patient choice and they feel that the media and the general public often trivialise the seriousness of diabetes. Even health professionals have been known to talk about serious and/or mild diabetes. IDDT aims to change these attitudes.

The event will be chaired by Lord Clement-Jones, CBE (who for many years was the Liberal-Democratic spokesman on health and is the Patron of the charity PharmacyHealthLink and a founder of CancerBacup). Speakers will be drawn from healthcare settings with consultants, GPs, specialist nurses and patients all arguing their corner.

The audience will be a maximum of 60 people and will be made up of patients and carers, MPs, civil servants from the Department of Health and obviously people with an interest in diabetes, including personnel from other health charities.

LONDON DEBATE – TUESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2009
2.00 pm – 5.30 pm
Chair - Lord Clement-Jones CBE
London Marriott Hotel, County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7PB

For further details please contact:
Veronica Wray PR
info@veronicawray.com

Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust

Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust

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