January/ February 2015 newsletter

Happy New Year and an invitation from Alastair Mackinlay, Chair

to our Annual General Meeting that will be held on Tuesday 17 February 2015 at 7.30 pm at St Mary’s Church Hall, Church Street, Twickenham, TW1 3NJ

Our guest speaker Helen Church,  Senior Diabetes Specialist Nurse with Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare Trustwill speak at 8 pm.

All are welcome.        Light refreshments will be available.

The business of the AGM, which will be concluded by 8pm, will be

  • to receive the Chair’s report
  • to receive the Treasurer’s accounts available at the meeting
  • to elect the committee, including Chair, Secretary and Treasurer

Anyone interested in joining the committee in any capacity is very welcome and can express an interest at the meeting or, to find out what is involved, telephone Alastair on 020 8941 1785. The committee meets once a month for about 90 minutes on a Monday evening.

Chair’s Report for 2014

We held eight Tuesday Evening meetings at St Mary’s Church Hall and heard talks from a wide range of speakers on subjects including nutrition, DUK’s advocacy service, our adopted research project on the interaction of islet cells in the pancreas, the Expert Patient Programme, Casper - a Diabetes Alert dog capable of detecting high and low blood sugars in its owner, Chris Cheyette, the author of Carbs & Cals and Jane Lawrence, the author of a biography of Dr. R D Lawrence, co-founder of the BDA, himself a diabetic and one of the first to use insulin.

We took part in several fundraising activities including a collection outside Sainsbury’s, St Clare’s. We also raised funds at four local fairs selling books, CD’s etc. alongside our information stall and our crowd-pulling sideshow Splat-the-Rat. Details will be given in the Treasurer’s report. Suffice it to say we are once again able to donate £1,000 to adopt a research project sponsored by Diabetes UK, which we have yet to choose.

The committee has spent some time upgrading our website which will be re-launched soon.  We would welcome your feedback especially ideas on what you would like to see on the website. Please use the contact details elsewhere in this newsletter.

Treasurer’s Report

Accounts for 2014 will be circulated and presented at the meeting.

Election of the Committee

Posts to be filled:  Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and up to 10 others.

2015 Dates for Tuesday night meetings at 7.30 pm at St. Mary’s, Church Hall, Church Street, Twickenham, TW1 1NJ are

17 February, 17 March, 14 April, 12 May, 16 June, 14 July, 15 September & 13 October

We are always keen to hear of interesting speakers so if you have any useful contacts or have suggestions for topics to be covered in this year’s talks please get in touch with Alastair on 020 8941 1785.

At our last meeting in October 2014 we heard a very interesting talk about R D Lawrence given by Jane Lawrence, his daughter-in-law, who has written his biography. We have a copy of her book in the library that is available to borrow. Please contact Trisha Shirt on 020 8941 5162, library@dukrt.org.uk  or pick it up at the next meeting.      

Our biggest expense is mailing these newsletters. It seems that some of you have moved house and/or lost interest in our activities. So, if you have a new email address we can use please contact Bob Watford on treasurer@dukrt.org.uk.

We have decided to take the drastic step of saying that if you still wish to receive the newsletters please let us know by 28 February 2015 by writing or telephoning Trisha Shirt at 25 Church Street, Hampton, TW12 2EB or 020 8941 5162 or emailing via library@dukrt.org.uk. Otherwise we will assume you no longer wish to hear from us and will remove your name from our delivery list.

Trisha should already have contacted those of you with an email address for your response. If you have not heard please phone her.

Another way to keep delivery costs down is to become a volunteer deliverer for addresses in your area. Trisha is particularly looking for people to deliver in Richmond and Twickenham so get in touch with her if you can help at all.

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at the AGM next month.

Alastair Mackinlay, Chair                                                                 January 2015

Chair@DUKRT.org.uk  02089411785