Tag: looking forward

Our Journey with Type 1 and Football…

Posted on by thediabetesfootballcommunity in diabetes, Football, sport

Another amazing story to share with the community brought to you by Karen Brown, the mother of Ellen, a young type 1 who’s having a fantastic time with her Football/Futsal at the moment. Ellen & Karen have been big advocates and supporters of our work at TDFC from the very early days so it’s brilliant to be able to share their story! No more words needed from us, over to you Karen…

“Our daughter Ellen was diagnosed at age 8 with type 1 diabetes. As you all know it hits like a bomb and the early days are hard. Somewhere amongst the haze of diagnosis we made a decision that when we got Ellen home we would stabilise her doing all of the sport she usually did. So the day after discharge we took her to school for a few hours and the following Monday she started back swimming. I sat on the edge of the pool chewing my nails hoping she would be fine. Strangely enough the year she was diagnosed is the only year she hasn’t played football (played 1 year of netball and hated it!). Ellen prefers to manage her diabetes with a pump (Medtronic) and we use CGM periodically.

Since then it has been buckets of football and within the last 4 years she has also played futsal in the off-season. It is amazing how different the two are to manage. Football often sends her low- particularly in the cold Canberra winters (we live in Australia) whereas futsal sends her high due to the adrenaline. As futsal isn’t as big in Canberra her futsal club (Boomerangs FS) travel to Sydney to play in a Sydney comp. So every Sydney game we travel between 2 ½ to 4 hours each way (depending on what side of Sydney the game is) to play. The weather in Canberra is quite dry whereas Sydney can be humid which can affect Ellen’s BGLs (sends her low) so at the half way stop en route to the game we reduce insulin if she has any carbs and put a reduced temp basal on. We find doing low carb on the morning prior to the Sydney trips much easier to manage. At least we are only fixing the humidity problem. Then during the games she heads high! Sydney games we nearly always use CGM to help keep an eye on things. If it’s a home game its breakfast as usual. After the game she eats what she wants.

Ellen Brown Picture 3

Whilst having diabetes can be tough when you are playing football and futsal, we run at it with the attitude that if we have a tough day diabetes wise we look at why and see if we can do something different. There are days when you just can’t explain why the numbers are what they are! All of her coaches and teams have been really supportive and the boys often try and guess her Blood Glucose Level – she plays in the Boys National Premier League. Ellen also chooses to celebrate her ‘diaversary’, so the team usually hangs out for the cupcakes she takes along to celebrate another year kicking the butt of diabetes.

Having diabetes hasn’t stopped Ellen from achieving in soccer and futsal. The last 12 months have been particularly rewarding!!! 12 months ago her girls futsal team won both the premiership and championship in the Sydney comp. For outdoor her BBFC U16’s team made the Grand Final and won in a penalty shootout. She then made the ACT team (regional team) to play futsal at Nationals in January – they were runners up in the Grand Final in a penalty shootout. And a couple of weeks ago at the presentation night for Boomerangs FS, Ellen was awarded female player of the year. We are pretty proud of her. Winning isn’t everything but it is great to get some wins and they have been a while coming!! Though I must say the victories are much sweeter after the effort you put in to get the diabetes right. (excuse the pun!)

Ellen Brown Picture 1

As much as it is a challenge, there have been lots of good things about having diabetes in our lives for the last 8 years. We have made a whole new bunch of friends we wouldn’t have otherwise met. Whilst it is so nice being able to converse with those who understand the challenges and learn new things from. Ellen has had the opportunity to speak at JDRF fundraisers and she was recently asked to take part in some research at ANU.

Being part of TDFC has been a huge help though. It was so nice to hear from others who play football and be able to read about their experiences. With Ellen being a girl it was so nice to read about Noel and what she has achieved. We got to meet Zac (UK DiaEuro Player) at one of Ellen’s games in Sydney and hope to see him again soon. Whilst it’s also great to see that Chris represented his country in Futsal, which gives Ellen so much hope she can achieve the same.

Ellen Brown Picture 4

To any young footballer out there, chase your dreams. Ellen’s favourite saying is “I don’t live with diabetes, diabetes lives with me”.”

 

A really great blog written by Karen Brown and a huge thank you from us for putting it together. If there’s anyone out there reading this who’d like to contribute in a similar way get in touch! We’re always on the look out for blogs and stories to share…

Our First Training Session (DiaEuro)… Making History

Posted on by thediabetesfootballcommunity in diabetes, Football, sport

On April 22nd 2018 we began our journey to create the UK’s first all Diabetic Futsal team……

Where do I start… It’s hard to put it into words how proud I am to see this project get off the ground after the hard work and time given up by people behind the scenes at TDFC. I know I personally invested a huge amount of time negotiating, networking and reaching out to people to try and make this happen, and to finally see a group of Diabetic players come together to train, socialise and share experiences has got to be one of my proudest moments I’ve had since launching the community in February 2017.

So in this blog I’m going to try and give a bit of insight into what happened…

So we’d asked the players to arrive between 9:30 – 10 am to give them a few minutes to acclimatise to their surroundings and stretch their legs after a number of them had travelled upwards of 2 hours to get to the University of Worcester ( www.worc.ac.uk ). As the guys all started arriving it was great to see the passion for the project and the idea of playing futsal with a group of people they’d never met! One thing which I spotted as people sat down and got ready for the briefing, was the instant connection and bonding that the guys were doing from the off… Most of them had never really spoken to another type 1 Diabetic let alone a whole room of them all interested in the same sport they were into!!! I’ve seen this happen only on a couple of other occasions at Diabetes related conferences and events but when it’s something you’ve helped organise it’s pretty special to witness. 

Myself and Harley, who’d led the organisation of the day at the university, were keen to give the players a short briefing before they jumped straight into the session. We wanted to properly introduce the members of the TDFC team, give the guys an idea of the agenda and ensure they knew the health & safety procedure at the university. But after this “brief” briefing, it was all about the Futsal!!!

As the lads got kitted up and ready to go, I was running around trying to make sure the coaches were happy and had what they needed, whilst checking Elle and Harley hadn’t come across any hiccups! Luckily it was all good and as the lads entered the hall I was confident we were in a good spot! As Will Weaver and Paul McHugh (our coaches) introduced themselves and their esteemed background in Futsal, I was able to relax ever so slightly. As the session got underway I was able to chat with Jodie and Max who’d come down from the Worcestershire FA to support us and capture footage of the occasion (www.worcestershirefa.com), which was fantastic to see. It was also brilliant to see Sue and Lisa, from the local adult Diabetes specialist team, drop in to view a part of the session. I was extremely appreciative of the local support from our partners in the community on this historic day!   

As we got into the session itself, I spent most of the time observing and capturing images for TDFC social media. My job will be to manage and pick the team, as well as potentially playing, so it was important I got a good idea of the quality level of the players! With the experience of the guys varying from a former professional footballer to recreational Sunday league, the overall standard was really impressive for an introduction to Futsal and I’m really excited about how they continue to develop their passion for the team and the sport. Luckily, we filmed the whole session so I’ve got the help of video footage to review when picking the squad because I’m not sure it’s going to be an easy job based on the ability I saw!!

The session continued to progress very nicely from technical drills, into sessions closely linked to game play, to give the players an opportunity to try out the things they’d just learnt. I just tried to facilitate our coaches’ ability to deliver the session as well as the happiness of players and our band of TDFC volunteers. I maintained a safe distance from playing (due to a game I’d played the day before) and tried to just take it all in, with everyone seemingly enjoying themselves, I was just so pleased. The observing was the best part! Loved it!

To see the media take an interest in our “new” team was also really positive as it gives us the platform to gain support from sponsors, new players, coaches and the governing body of our sport to continue doing this exciting work.  BBC Hereford and Worcester arrived towards the end of the session to do a couple of interviews with myself and the players whilst recording some video footage to use for their social media channels. The below links are showcasing the coverage we received from the day:

Radio:

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0638fgt#play ( 1 hour 37 minutes 36 seconds for the feature)

 Social Media:

https://instagram.com/p/Bh9AFV3hQLS/ 

https://www.facebook.com/bbcherefordandworcester/videos/2003662723039459/

A huge thank you to the BBC for all of the support and coverage you have given us!

 

As the boys finished up with training I witnessed a moment of absolute gold and something I felt summed up the day perfectly. Seeing a group of lads who’d never met before, high fiving, patting each other on the back and embracing at the end of the session like they’d known each other for years is something I’ll never forget. In reality, they’d known each other for 2 hours!!!  Sharing a medical condition with someone who enjoys the same sport as you drives an instant connection that most people can’t even replicate with their best friends!! Something just clicks….

This signifies the start of something special!

Post session we grabbed the players, coaches and any volunteers who wanted to stay afterwards (of which most did!) to sit and have lunch. The camaraderie and laughter the lads were having normally takes months of work to create, yet they had managed it in a couple of hours, as they exchanged stories of life with Diabetes and shared the obligatory banter over football. Injections and blood glucose monitoring devices were out on all of the tables and carb counting was the norm!

As we brought the day to close and I reflected on what we’d delivered, I was filled with immense pride. This day had been such a long time in the making and I was so pleased it lived up to the expectations we’d set ourselves.  We had some amazingly positive feedback and enthusiasm from the players involved and I think that TDFC did a great job during this first training session.

So it’s onto the next session… Sunday the 17th of June at the University of Worcester Sports Centre. We will be welcoming new and existing players to the session as we continue to work towards getting a team to www.diaeuro.org from the U.K and growing the team beyond this tournament.

Before signing off though, I have to say a huge thank you to Harley, Elle, my parents, Jon, Alex, Bryn, Will, Paul and all of the players for their support in putting on a hugely positive session. I’m sure the positivity surrounding the day will ensure this project goes from strength to strength and I’m super grateful for all of your involvement.

Until the next time,

Chris

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New Year, New Goals, Same Motivation?

Posted on by thediabetesfootballcommunity in diabetes, Football, sport

At the start of every year I find myself reflecting on what’s happened over the previous 12 months and looking forward to what the next 12 bring my way. I don’t think I’m alone in the way that I do this with the hundreds of posts I see online, all referring to the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It’s a period of transition which in my eyes allows me to reset my thinking and the batteries. It gives me an excuse to think about the positive changes I can make to my life in the New Year and the impact I can have on the future, as I know I can’t affect what’s happened in the past.

However, the start of the New Year in the U.K is often grey, cold and somewhat uninspiring for those looking to get active for the first time, or who have had a break over the festive period. Combine that with a challenging period of over indulgence in Food and drink that tests the blood glucose levels of people with Diabetes, and you can see why it may be a struggle to get into a new regime during the New Year.

Diabetes is a condition which is renowned for testing even the most positive people in their approach to life, so it’s important to consider its pitfalls when finding your motivation to get active or play sport. How do you combat negativity around your condition which affects your mindset and approach to daily activities and exercise?

I don’t have a definitive answer… However myself and Alex will try to offer you some insight in how to approach the New Year, set new goals, how to find your motivation and most importantly, maintain it:

  • First of all, it’s about what motivates you to get active? Is it external praise? The sense of achievement from within yourself? Money? Fun and enjoyment? Becoming Healthier?  There’s a whole array of things which may drive you to make a change. In my life it’s about the sense of achievement I get from ticking off goals and the enjoyment I get from playing sport.  But for you, it’s important to understand what’s driving you to get active or stay active and use that to continually fuel your motivation.

  • Secondly, I never set Diabetes related goals… I’m not sure if that will shock people or not, but it’s how I work as an individual. I’ve always had the attitude that as long as I maintain acceptable control which allows me to perform to the best of my ability in my sport, and it doesn’t affect my every day activities, that’s good enough for me. If I give it too much focus in my life it will consume it, so I choose to position it on the backseat of my life and not the front seat.
  • I like to break my goals into categories… I tend to place any objectives or goals into sections which reflect the direction of my life. So for example in 2018 I’ve got goals for my Personal life, my sport and my career. It helps me organise myself and the direction I’m trying to head towards in all walks of my life.
  • I set 2 or 3 goals in each section which I believe are achievable within the timescale of 2018…It’s important you don’t try and change too much as you’re unlikely to be able to achieve too many goals, which may disappoint you in the long run. Be realistic in the expectations you set yourself.
  • The goals I set are the big things I want to achieve, but each week I’ll set myself much smaller ones which underpin the progress towards the bigger ones. For example it might be reducing my 5k running time, or lifting a heavier weight in the gym. Neither of which are part of my overall objectives but both will contribute to hopefully successfully achieving 2018’s goals. Those smaller goals can be so important when you’re having a tough week with the Diabetes in feeling that sense of achievement we need to keep us going. I think it it’s important in driving the continuation of exercise and keeping those good habits.

Of course my motivation and the tools I’ve used are transferable, but on the next section of this post I’m handing over to Alex who’s going to take a look at it from his perspective as he’s spent a considerable amount of time studying sports psychology.

 

“I want to talk to you guys about goals. Goals can help keep you motivated throughout the year, especially when the initial motivation that often comes with the New Year begins to fade. All goals are not created equal and the better goals you set the greater chance you have of continuing to make progress throughout the New Year. The rest of this post will give you some do’s and don’ts when setting some goals.

DO – Make sure the goals you set are in the form of actions and behaviours. If you want to increase the amount of exercise you do this year, how are you going to do that? Perhaps you want go to the gym more? How many times a week will you go? An example of a good goal in here would be, “I’ll go to the gym twice a week this year”. You could make this even better by deciding which days you will go to the gym. Once you’ve achieved this goal you may decide to add another night.

DON’T – Carrying on from the first suggestion, do not and I mean never ever, set vague goals. So if you find yourself saying something like, I’m going to take my football more seriously this year, refer back to the first do. If you have ever found yourself starting something for a few weeks and then slowly but surely reverting back to old habits, vague goals may well be the reason why. Vague goals can also be thought of as wishful thinking.

DON’T – A goal that can’t be measured is not a great goal to set. Setting a goal that you can measure allows you to check your progress as you set out to achieve your something and lets you know when you have been successful. If you want to improve your diabetes management this year, perhaps set a target for where you would like your HBA1C score to be for your next consultation. It’s really important to mention here, that goals concerning your HBA1C score should be set with gradual improvement in mind, not drastic changes.

DO – Set goals that are positive. This is a simple but powerful tip; it’s really important to focus on what we want to happen rather than what we’d like to avoid. When you’re setting goals, try and make them about increasing behaviours rather than decreasing behaviours. So if you have a goal regarding your nutrition, make your goal about starting to eat things that are going to help you lead a healthier life instead of stop eating foods that don’t help you lead the lifestyle you would like. Being positive in your goal setting will help you decide on the actions that will help you get there (remember the first do).

Since I have just suggested to make your goals positive, I am going to finish on a do rather than a don’t. My advice to you all, setting goals will increase the chance that any resolutions you’ve made will continue past January. Goal setting is key to long lasting motivation and it will also let you see how far you’ve come. Once you see yourself making progress I hope this will also increase your motivation to continue. Happy New Year folks!

Alex.

If anyone wants some more in-depth advice regarding setting goals for the New Year, don’t hesitate to get in contact with me via email.

alexrichards35@gmail.com”

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Reflecting upon 2017, whilst looking forward to 2018

Posted on by thediabetesfootballcommunity in diabetes, Football, sport

First of all, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and is looking forward to 2018. I always see this time of year as the perfect opportunity to reflect on what has gone before and review the year’s trials and tribulations. It helps me process how I’ve dealt with what’s happened throughout the year and then focus on what I need to do in 2018 to make things successful from a personal perspective and in this case, on behalf of The Diabetes Football Community (TDFC).

For the purpose of this post I’ll steer clear from my own personal ups and downs across the year. Instead, I want to solely focus this post around the achievements of TDFC and the direction we’re taking for 2018 as it’s been a constant source of positivity within my life in 2017 and I hope it has been the same for the diabetes community.

Let’s rewind ourselves back to February and the start of the project… When I left university in 2012 I wanted to find a way of helping people with Diabetes around sport and specifically Football, knowing the experience I’d had within the game, but at that time I maybe didn’t have the experience, knowhow or the mindset to pull it off. However the continued rise of Social Media in that 4/5 year period all of a sudden gave me the platform I needed to communicate and share this experience. After a period of communicating and talking about my own personal circumstances and life within the #GBDoc the idea came to me… A free vehicle in the form of Twitter and Facebook where I could share some snippets of my own knowledge and hopefully encourage others to do the same and form a peer support community which could bridge the gap between legal disablement (Equality Act, 2010) and partaking in mainstream sport. There aren’t many conditions where this occurs and for me there hasn’t been anywhere near enough support for people living with chronic medical conditions in my sport during my life playing football. This is something I feel passionately about changing! This drive/passion and obvious gap I’d felt myself, created the growth platform for TDFC.

So following hundreds of posts, tweets, direct messages, blog posts, networking with others, conferences, Facebook live videos and a couple of podcasts during the 10 months since TDFC began, we now have 700+ followers on Twitter, 3000+ likes on Facebook and since the website launched at the end of May, it has received 6,500 views. To say I’m extremely proud of what we’ve done in growing the network and supporting people with diabetes would be the understatement of the century. I can only describe it as an incredible reflection of our hard work and of the gaping hole which needs addressing for this group of people.

However, you can’t achieve this all on your own…So let me say a huge, huge thank you to the team of people who have supported the development of TDFC across 2017. Firstly to James (Jim), who has completely driven the look and feel of our platforms, logos, images, T-shirts, leaflets and any collateral promoting the project. He does this whilst balancing a full time job and whilst having a young child, so his support has been incredible and I hope I can pay you back one day buddy. Secondly to Noel, whose enthusiasm for supporting people with diabetes and advocating for improvements is second to none and is truly inspiring. She continues to help push the project forward and lead TDFC in the USA. Whilst lastly I’d like to say thank you to Karl, Alex and Jon who have all recently been added to our family and have supported in three very different but extremely valuable ways. All of you have been incredible and without you there can be no doubt that the growth of TDFC would not have been as rapid. I’m very grateful to have you all on board and always will be. I look forward to you continuing on the journey and with some of the awesome things we’ve got coming up for 2018 I hope to see a few more joining the TDFC ranks, to help drive some of our ideas forward!

So what have been my highlights across the year?

Portugal Photos

Well where do I start… Probably for me the Trip to Portugal was the single greatest highlight of the year. I still can’t believe I was able to share a Futsal Court with a group of people who all live with the same condition as me. It had a lasting effect and it’s now something I’m working hard to recreate within the UK during 2018. As much as that was incredible, some of the stories from the community that have been shared and the impact we’ve been able to share outweighs the trip to Portugal for me. We’ve also been lucky enough to visit conferences relating to Diabetes and sport to spread the message of TDFC and network with other likeminded people/organisations. Yet the only thing that really matters is continuing to provide the inspiration, help and guidance the community need or want from us.

In spreading our message of empowerment and support we’ve been lucky enough to receive some great backing from organisations that will be imperative in driving our growth in 2018. One of those leading partners is the Worcestershire FA , who have been passionate about our mission from day one and for whom I’m incredibly thankful for their motivation to do more and join us on the journey. We will be working alongside each other in 2018 to push a number of initiatives and ideas forward!

Noel & Jodie meeting at Worcestershire FA HQ
TDFC

A new addition to our partnerships and a good friend of mine is the DiAthlete (Gavin Griffiths). We’ve just agreed that as part of the League of DiAthletes programme which supports worldwide education and empowerment for people with Diabetes that TDFC and I, as the founder, will partner with the programme to push the message of education and support, for people with Diabetes from people with Diabetes. I believe this to be an extremely powerful mix which with help from our healthcare professionals is changing the way care and education around Diabetes is provided. It’s a really exciting proposition which I can’t wait for TDFC to support. 

Within this post, I also wanted to highlight some of the amazing publicity we’ve had during 2017… It’s a reflection of the hard work put in to developing the project but also a representation of the need there is for projects like ours to exist. It’s been amazing to receive coverage from the English Federation of Disability Sport , On Track Magazine  and The Inclusion Club to name a few, in what has been great publicity for a project so young. However as much as I believe in celebrating our successes and sharing them, I’m firmly focussed on what I can impact upon now, which is the future.

So what are we doing in 2018?

2018 is about you, the community! This is now the time for us to take it up a gear. Following a period of time where we’ve focussed on providing mainly online support via social media, we want to push it a step further and try to develop some initiatives which bring people with diabetes together, with football as the vehicle. I’ve been building bridges over the last year with the Worcestershire FA,  who are supporting us with raising awareness in Football with a video campaign we want to create, whilst also helping us consider how we may improve education through workshops and resources. Alongside the improvement in education, there’s an amazing opportunity to bring people together to learn about Diabetes management whilst also enjoying involvement in the game. This opportunity starts with attempting to create the first team from the UK to compete in DiaEuro  and continues into developing our own participation days/camps for people with Diabetes at home in the UK. We hope that with the support of our friends at DiabPT United we can recreate the model they’re using to bring this all to life.  We will need support from sponsors, players, coaches, admin & medical professionals to pull it off but I’m hoping we will have some amazing support from our friends within the diabetes community to get this off the ground!

The most important thing about our community is the people that interact with it, who share their stories, get inspired and who continue to learn new things which help them with their everyday lives. Our developments as a project are as much about our ideas as they are about yours, so if you think there is something you’d like to see us do, or think would be a good idea, or even that you’d like to help us with in the future, all you need to do is get in contact. We’re here for you!

I’d just like to finally point towards the future and the works of 1 Bloody Drop (Paul Coker) and Chris Pennell’s type 1 Diabetes Rugby academy to demonstrate the gap and why the work of TDFC has become important in filling a void for people with Diabetes in Sport. I’ve forged promising relationships with both of these projects and I firmly believe we’re all pulling together to improve the lives of people with Diabetes in sport all over the globe. People living with chronic conditions taking part in mainstream sport don’t get enough support to compete and this is what we’re trying to  address!

I hope you’ll agree that it’s been a pretty amazing 10 months for TDFC and the future looks even brighter. Keep supporting us, keep sharing your experiences with us and keep spreading the message. We can’t challenge the misconceptions and the structures in society without your support!

To an amazing 2018 and beyond…My best wishes.

Live. Play. Inspire.

Chris