Talking About Diabetes – aka TAD – 2024 took place at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre on Friday 25 May, bringing together the Type 1 diabetes community for a day of peer support and inspirational stories.
The Steve Morgan Foundation’s CEO, Liam Eaglestone, and his son Jack were invited to give a talk to delegates on their journey of living with Type 1 – and how they use technology to make things easier.
Jack and Liam were diagnosed with Type 1 around a decade ago, just 12 months apart, and they have been successfully using an Opensource Hybrid Closed Loop system for six years.
Also known as an artificial pancreas, a hybrid closed loop system enables the glucose monitor and insulin pump to communicate with each other, and automatically adjust the delivery of insulin in response to changing glucose levels.
Liam and Jack gave insights into why and how they built their opensource system and lessons learned along the way.
“Living with a chronic condition, the lack of sleep and inevitable burnout is hard, and developing the system was not easy but it is ‘doable’ and the benefits can be significant.”
They also acknowledged all the amazing pioneers in the #OpenAPS & #WeAreNotWaiting communities. Liam and Jack’s talk then led into the Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge, with a video message from Steve and Sally Morgan.
“Technology is great – but it is not a cure”, added Liam. “The Grand Challenge is seeking that cure, by bringing together some of the best and brightest brains in the type 1 research community.”
Read more here about the Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge
What is Talking About Diabetes (TAD)?
Talking About Diabetes (TAD) brings together individuals who have inspirational stories to share in the context of living with diabetes. The goal is to inspire us to think differently about diabetes, removing barriers and harnessing innovation and new technologies.
The TAD talk concept was brought to life in 2016 by three doctors specialising in diabetes – Catherine Peters, Petr Hindmarsh and Partha Kar, Type 1 Diabetes and Technology Lead for NHS England. They wanted to support and empower those with diabetes to achieve their potential and live well.
“Talking About Diabetes aka TAD was always simply an idea to bring the community of Type 1 Diabetes together- a chance for people to mingle, talk to each other- built on my own one simple philosophy- you cannot change the paradigm of care without the power of the community.” Partha S Kar
Photo credits: Marc Lungley