"I would like to tell my story about my daughter Vivienne who developed diabetes in 1971.
We had lotsof trips to her GP about her condition where they kept saying it was due to her growing up. In the end I had to put my foot down and demand they do a test to find out what was wrong with her - when they found out it was diabetes they admitted her to the local hospital immediately.
When we arrived at the hospital they had no idea what to do so that’s when I decided to something about it.
I happened to be looking through a magazine and there it was - a British Diabetic Association (now Diabetes UK) advert, so I decided to ring them and they told me what they did. That’s when I told them I was going to start a local group -Diabetes UK’s Wyre Forest branch- which I did and I am still the group's chairman to this day.
I got things moving for the better. It was very hard for people to accept me at first, but since those days I have made a big impact on diabetes in the County of Worcestershire. Of course there were fundraising events to get things moving and for diabetes research which is very important to me.
Some of the things we've done to fundraise were pram races, car boot sales, cabarets, many walks, but to make it all work I had to work at it 24/7. I had hardly any home life at all, but now we 've got the best diabetes care anyone can expect.
Throughout my volunteer work, I've had a diabetes centre at a local hospital named after me and I was also made Citizen of the Town. I've won loads of awards and made it to the last four people nominated for ITV's Pride of Britain 2013 where I successfully became a runner-up finalist."
