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The holidays and stress often go hand in hand. Busy schedules, party food, gift buying pressures, more alcohol, and less sleep can fill our time. Diabetes management often gets put on the back burner, and we have a melt-down faster than you can say “Frosty the Snowman”! But that doesn’t have to be the case.

World Diabetes Day is celebrated each year on November 14th, the birthday of Sir Frederick Banting, who along with Charles Best, discovered insulin in 1922. The International Diabetes Federation created World Diabetes Day in 1991 to help bring diabetes awareness to a global audience. Many of our DiabetesSisters PODS Meetup Leaders marked the day by participating in special events, holding PODS Meetups and celebrating their lives with diabetes.

Kay Mober’s journey with diabetes started more than 43 years ago, when she was diagnosed with type 1. Her journey with DiabetesSisters began in 2015 when she started attending a Part of DiabetesSisters (PODS) Meetup in Albany, NY. She enjoyed the meetings each month and how supportive everyone was.

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In 2012, a few years after Sondra Bennett started her journey with type 1 diabetes at age 50, she met another woman with diabetes who started and led a PODS Meetup in Richmond, VA. Sondra attended several Meetups in Richmond and then started one closer to her in Yorktown. After leading the Yorktown PODS for a few more years, Sondra moved the Meetup closer to her home in Williamsburg. The Williamsburg PODS has been active since April 2015.

During the weekend of September 28, we were excited to welcome 20 PODS leaders to Chicago for our fourth annual Leadership Institute! Attendees were some of our key volunteers, all women living with diabetes who offer their time each month leading PODS (Part Of DiabetesSisters) Meetups in their communities. PODS Meetups provide peer support, education, and encouragement for women with any type of diabetes or prediabetes.

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Sometimes the best discoveries come from an online search. In January 2014, Sarah MacLeod found DiabetesSisters online and filled out a form to say she was interested in finding a PODS Meetup near her, in Massachusetts or the surrounding area. She found out that no one had started a PODS Meetup near her (yet), and clicked another box or link saying she would like to start one. Sarah says she knew from her first phone call about PODS that her life was going to change – and it sure has.

On September 18, 2018, the diabetes community lost  Dr. Lois Jovanovic, a real powerhouse in women’s health.  Dr. Jovanovic lived with diabetes herself and pioneered a procedure to better help women with diabetes have healthy, successful pregnancies.  We are honored to share heartfelt tributes from two of our DiabetesSisters.

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