Volunteer Spotlight
March 2025
Sophia Alvi and Syed Kerbalai volunteer are Community Champions with Diabetes Scotland. They share their experiences of teaming up with the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society (SABS) and Hibernian FC Community Foundation to provide a free hot meal to those who need it in Edinburgh and raise awareness of diabetes.
Meet Sophia and Syed.
Volunteer Spotlight - December 2024
Roberta Hill is the Chair of our Shropshire and Borders Family Group having become part of the group when her son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes seven years ago.
Volunteer Spotlight - November 2024
Peter is an events volunteer with our Northern Ireland team. He shares what volunteering means to him and how he’s making a difference.
Volunteer Spotlight - October 2024
Deepthi is an events volunteer, a speaker volunteer, and a Diabetes Communities in Action volunteer based in Leeds.
Volunteer Spotlight - August 2024
Janice is a Community Group Lead volunteer who runs our Portsmouth ‘Carbs at the Kettle’ group.
Volunteer Spotlight - July 2024
Ruth shares her experiences of attending events and raising awareness in her local community
Volunteer Spotlight - April 2024
Misbah is a Community Champion, Events Volunteer, and Speaker Volunteer from London.
Volunteer Spotlight - March 2024
Kirsty is a Pensions Administrator from Glasgow who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was just 18 months old. She’s a member of Diabetes Scotland’s Tech Collective and a General Volunteer at our Type 1 Family Weekender events.
Volunteer Spotlight - February 2024
To mark Student Volunteering Week 2024 (12-18 February), we caught up with Aashna, a medical student who created the University of Bristol Type 1 Diabetes community group.
Volunteer Spotlight - December 2023
Lea is one of our Young Leaders on the Our Lives, Our Voices programme in Northern Ireland and she recently joined the Northern Ireland Advisory Council.
Volunteer Spotlight - November 2023
To mark Trustees’ Week on 6-10 November, we asked Professor Hanif, who sits on our Board of Trustees, about his experience
Volunteer Spotlight - September 2023
Lee was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 7. He’s recently become one of our Live Well Champions in Wales.
Volunteer Spotlight - August 2023
Phoebe was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two weeks before her 10th birthday. She’s now studying for a degree in Forensic Science at university, and is one of our Young Leader volunteers on the Together Type 1 youth programme.
Volunteer Spotlight - July 2023
Sid is a Specialist Diabetes Dietitian working in Salford. He recently volunteered with Diabetes UK for the first time, at one of our Type 1 Family Weekender events.
Volunteer Spotlight - June 2023
When Sue was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, she knew nothing about the condition. So she started volunteering to learn more, and now has a variety of roles sharing her knowledge with others.
Volunteer Spotlight - May 2023
Jackie started volunteering when he was looking for some support for his own diabetes in 2014. He now supports many other people through his various voluntary roles.
Volunteer Spotlight - April 2023
Carole is one of our speaker volunteers, and secretary of the Hammersmith and Fulham local group.
Volunteer Spotlight - March 2023
Parveen started volunteering to give something back to her community. She is now a lay member on one of our Diabetes Research Steering Groups.
Volunteer Spotlight - February 2023
Jenny has volunteered at our Type 1 Family Weekenders and Summer Camps for over 20 years. She tells us why the events are so important to her.
Volunteer Spotlight - November 2022
To celebrate Trustees' Week, we asked our Chair of the Board of Trustees, Carol Homden, some questions about her experience a year into her role.
Volunteer Spotlight - October 2022
Amina is an event volunteer with us and takes every opportunity she can to hold an information stand in her community and raise awareness of diabetes.
Volunteer Spotlight - September 2022
Jamie volunteers with our youth project in Scotland. In this Q&A, he tells us about why he got involved, his experience as a youth volunteer, and what he's learned along the way.
Volunteer Spotlight - August 2022
John was inspired to volunteer after he retired, wanting to help others affected by diabetes. We spoke to John to find out more about the innovative work he's doing to raise awareness of diabetes in his community.
Volunteer Spotlight - July 2022
Nicola is the lead volunteer of our support group in Neath. She set the group up in 2021 and is looking forward to seeing how far it can go to support people living with diabetes in the area.
Volunteer Spotlight - May 2022
David is the lead volunteer for our online type 1 adults support group, ‘The Funambulists’ which was formed in December 2020.
Volunteer Spotlight - April 2022
Rumit started volunteering with us in 2008. He overcame his fears to become a Speaker Volunteer, and has also fundraised, helped at events, in our office and is treasurer of his local group in Barnet.
Volunteer Spotlight - March 2022
Alan decided to apply to be an Events Volunteer after his son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two years ago. Since then, he’s learnt a great deal about the condition and gone on to raise awareness to help others.
Volunteer Spotlight - February 2022
To celebrate Student Volunteering Week, we sat down with our volunteer Helen Liebhaber, who has set up a type 1 support group at Bristol UWE.
Volunteer Spotlight - January 2022
Carol is a Befriending Volunteer with our Carmarthen Befriending Circle. She has been giving virtual exercise classes and is working with her local council for Voluntary Services to run sessions for people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Volunteer Spotlight - December 2021
Our Friday Lunch Peer Support Group was set up in June 2020 in response to the pandemic. Since then, the group of six volunteers from across Scotland have met online every Friday to support each other through the ups and downs of living with diabetes.
Volunteer Spotlight - November 2021
To celebrate Trustees’ Week, we sat down with Sir Peter Dixon, the Chair of our Board of Trustees, to ask him some questions about the important role of trustees within the organisation and his reflections on his time as Chair of the Board.
Volunteer Spotlight - October 2021
Tony has been supporting communities across Manchester for over 40 years. For Tony it’s about making connections to help people and communities to thrive.
Volunteer Spotlight - September 2021
When Jonathan retired as a GP in 2015, he wanted to volunteer to give back and for a sense of purpose after his working life had come to an end. As a Volunteer Befriender, he provides a listening ear and supports other people living with type 2 diabetes.
Volunteer Spotlight - August 2021
Nathan is a Speaker Volunteer from the East Midlands. He tells us his story of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 25, learning about his condition and Diabetes UK, and going on to volunteer and share his experience with others.
Volunteer Spotlight - July 2021
Lis has volunteered for us for an incredible 20 years and counting as a passionate speaker, campaigner, research volunteer and service champion.
Volunteer Spotlight - May 2021
Chippenham & District have been running online meetings every two weeks since April 2020. The hardworking committee arrange talks for the group and also run peer support meetings for people living with diabetes.
Volunteer Spotlight - April 2021
Dawn is a Speaker Volunteer from Nottingham. She first started volunteering for us in 2017 and is giving online awareness talks in the run up to Ramadan this year.
Volunteer Spotlight - March 2021
Emma's one of our guest instructors on our 10 week ‘Get Moving’ programme, supporting people with diabetes to start moving more. To celebrate National Workouts and Wellbeing Week, we spoke to Emma to find out more about her role.
Volunteer Spotlight - February 2021
Our Forth Valley T1D Families Group are a community that support each other through the ups and downs of type 1 diabetes. In November 2020, they put together packs for local children and their families newly diagnosed during the pandemic.
Volunteer Spotlight - January 2021
When Charlie's career came to an end in 2017, he applied to volunteer for Diabetes UK and has gone on fundraise for us, help at countless events and tell his personal story of being diagnosed with LADA through talks, articles and blogs.
Volunteer Spotlight - December 2020
Our wonderful Sheffield Group dates back to the 1950s and does so much for their local community. In January 2020, they organised a big event to help people living with diabetes feel confident to move more.
Volunteer Spotlight - November 2020
Catherine is one of our type 1 events volunteers, making sure that children with type 1 diabetes and their families have the best possible time on our activity weekends. She tells us her story of living with diabetes and volunteering at our events.
Volunteer Spotlight - October 2020
Spencer lives in Cornwall and has volunteered with us for eight years. He's a Community Ambassador in the South West and raises awareness of diabetes and the support Diabetes UK provides by being a voice in his local community.
Volunteer Spotlight - September 2020
Sheila celebrates her 10th anniversary of volunteering this month. In the last 10 years, she's helped to proof read countless publications for us as well as raising awareness of diabetes and running our Stevenage Local Group.
Volunteer Spotlight - August 2020
Abdul has been raising awareness of type 2 diabetes since he was diagnosed 20 years ago. As a Community Champion, he gives talks in the South Asian community and speaks about diabetes on the radio.
Volunteer Spotlight - July 2020
Bonita is a befriender in our Cumbria Befriending Circle. She draws on her personal experience of living with type 2 diabetes to support others affected by the condition in her area by phone and email.
Volunteer Spotlight - June 2020
Mistura is a Community Champion in the London borough of Brent. The start of Ramadan coincided with the coronavirus lockdown and, when a planned event was cancelled, Mistura started to give talks about diabetes online.
Volunteer spotlight - our monthly feature celebrating our amazing volunteers
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