Nico Deetlefs: CDE Forum Experience
As part of SA Diabetes Advocacy’s ongoing mission to ensure that people living with diabetes are included in diabetes related conferences, the CDE granted SA Diabetes Advocacy a few free passes for people living with diabetes to attend the CDE Forum which took place in October 2023. Nico Deetlefs applied to attend the conference and received one of the free passes, below Nico shares his experience. #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs
“All in all, it was an enjoyable and engaging Forum and I hope other diabetes advocates get the chance to join next year ”
“Before receiving the opportunity to attend the CDE Forum I only had a vague idea who they (CDE) were and what they did. I therefore didn’t know what to expect, even after doing some “homework” to find out more about the CDE healthcare group and the CDE forum. After arriving at the venue and registering I visited the different stands and saw many familiar names from the pharmaceutical industry - for people living with diabetes at least.
There was a lot of buzzing and excitement from the delegates, and this made me look forward to listening to the different speakers. My takeaway from the first speaker, Dr Stan Landau, is that the person with diabetes should be placed at the centre of their medical treatment. Although this seems obvious, I am sure that most people with diabetes can relate to this not being the case. As per Dr Landau social workers, therapists, dieticians, and related health professionals should treat the person living with diabetes.
It was interesting to hear from Dr Jay Narainsamy talking about “A pill, a shot or both”, “Why the divide in gestational diabetes” as she herself had gestational diabetes and could therefore relate to the topic and I am sure that her experiences informed her final decision in diabetes treatment.
Another talk that stands out for me is the one by Prof. Joel Dave. It was interesting to hear and see the slides about the newer diabetes treatments options out there i.e., 2G and 3G GLP-1 receptors. Although the talk was interesting, most of the talk was technical and went over my head.
When Kirsten de Klerk, Co-founder of SA Diabetes Advocacy, told us that we had to be there at 3:45pm on Saturday I could not understand why. According to the agenda the speaker was Captain Jonathan Collins. I had up to then never heard of him. That is my misfortune as the talk was by far the highlight of the day! What an inspiring talk from an inspiring person. Jono was passionate and entertaining in telling his story from his dream of becoming a pilot to finally becoming an airline pilot – and a Captain to top it off, all while living with type 1 diabetes! What he has achieved in having the aviation legislation changed, with CDE’s help, is truly remarkable and a big win for all people living with diabetes, as well as others with similar medical conditions.”
