Over 300 people with diabetes, their families, and healthcare professionals gathered at Midlands Park Hotel, Portlaoise on Sunday to launch Diabetes Ireland’s World Diabetes Day celebrations for 2025. Diabetes Ireland’s “Living Life Well with Diabetes” meeting brought together people from all over the Midlands and further afield for an afternoon of learning, discussion, and shared experience.
As part of this exciting meeting, attendees were able to select an education stream relevant to the type of diabetes they live with and have a fantastic opportunity to discuss all things diabetes-related and hear from their peers.
The overall education focus of each stream was on optimising daily management and updating attendees on good techniques/practices and new information updates. The agenda was prepared in collaboration with the Adult Diabetes Team at Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise and the Paediatric Diabetes Team at Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar.
Type 1 Diabetes: Living with technology
A large Type 1 diabetes audience heard from Dr. Ma Pyeh Kyithar, Consultant Endocrinologist and Physician at Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise on best practices for managing Type 1 diabetes during hospital admissions, highlighting the importance of safe insulin management and effective communication between hospital teams. Next, the focus shifted to dealing with normal daily living with diabetes as Lorraine Kelly, Clinical Specialist Dietitian, shared practical advice on how the diabetes care team can support individuals in making good choices around nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle. Georgina Doyle, Diabetes Advanced Nurse Practitioner provided an in-depth overview of the data interpretation from insulin pumps and hybrid closed-loop systems, explaining how to translate numbers into meaningful action.
Type 2 diabetes: Healthy choices
In the Type 2 diabetes stream, Dr Michael Lockhart, Integrated Care Consultant in Endocrinology and Diabetes at St. Luke’s General Hospital, Carlow/Kilkenny outlined how community specialist hubs are enhancing integrated, patient-centred diabetes care. Next, Theo-Anne Botha and Rachel Mulcahy, Dietitians from the HSE Chronic Disease Hub in Kildare & West Wicklow, explained the role of the community dietitian and how they can support people with diabetes in their behaviour change and help with the food choices based on how these can affect glucose, cholesterol and BP levels. Finally, Dr. Ma Pyeh Kyithar discussed managing Type 2 diabetes during hospital admissions, underscoring the need for consistent, safe, and co-ordinated care.
Paediatric Diabetes: Improving Wellbeing of our children with diabetes
In the paediatric stream, parents and carers had an opportunity to learn from Niamh O’Rourke, Advanced Nurse Practitioner at Regional Hospital Mullingar, who explained how to interpret data from insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), and hybrid closed-loop systems, enabling more personalised and effective diabetes management in children. She was followed by her colleague, Anne-Marie Keogh, Clinical Specialist Dietitian, with an engaging presentation on managing exercise and diabetes in children and adolescents, offering valuable strategies for families and schools to help young people balance insulin, diet, and physical activity. Rounding out the afternoon, Professor Michael O’Grady, Consultant Paediatrician and Paediatric Endocrinologist at Regional Hospital Mullingar, presented new research on children’s mental health and wellbeing, emphasising the importance of early support and the integration of psychological care in diabetes management.
Our “Living Life Well with Diabetes” meeting was a great example of the collective commitment of local healthcare teams and Diabetes Ireland to improving the lives of people living with diabetes. Thank you to everyone for coming and joining us and helping to kickstart World Diabetes Awareness Month and World Diabetes Day celebrations.