We’re calling for a healthier future for all. A future where diabetes isn’t a barrier to living life as you want. A future where everyone living with diabetes gets the care they need to prevent complications, like sight loss and amputations. And where everyone gets the support they need to live well for longer.
We’ve campaigned for better care and more access to diabetes tech before – and we’ve won. So together, we can do it again.
Help us make this a reality for the 5.6 million people living with diabetes in the UK, right now.
When you live with diabetes, getting the right care, at the right place, at the right time, can be life-changing. But far too many people are still missing out. So many of you have been in touch to tell us about the lack of support, unequal access to life-changing tech and problems getting essential checks, such as blood tests, foot checks and eye screenings.
Em’s Story
Em is 40 and has lived with type 1 diabetes since she was six. She’s struggled with diabetes burnout and serious diabetes complications. She’s not always found it easy to get the support and care needed to live well with diabetes.
“A 10-minute appointment of checks felt like a tick box. There was no ‘how are you really?’…I needed someone to sit and help me understand.
It’s taken two heart attacks before I really got the help that I needed…now I’ve got the same diabetes nurse that I had when I was diagnosed…she really listens to me and has helped me get information and understand it all better.
I think once you’ve had something major happen it can open your eyes up a lot more…this is serious, and we need serious help at times, and to not let people get to the point where I’ve had to in order to get help. That’s not right, not right at all.”
Iain and Gary’s Story
Gary collapsed at work with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and was taken to hospital where they diagnosed him with type 1 diabetes. Iain, Gary’s husband, met him 2 years after his diagnosis. Sadly, Gary passed away from diabetes-related complications last year age 37. Read more about Iain and Gary’s experience here.
It doesn’t need to be this way. Figures published in June 2024 suggest that when the NHS invests in making sure people have earlier access to care and support, it can help save someone’s sight, stop someone having to have an amputation due to diabetes-related complications and improve their long-term health and wellbeing.
The more people who speak up and tell their candidates that no one should have to wait for essential diabetes care, the harder we’ll be to ignore. Diabetes is Serious. But together, so are we.
You can help change the lives of 5.6 million people living with diabetes in the UK, right now.
