Someone started postings on Facebook for women to post their bra color/pattern to bring awareness to breast cancer. Apparently this alone raised awareness of the Koman site over 2000% (I could be wrong on the %, but I know it was a huge increase).
What can we do to achieve similar increase in awareness of diabetes? Granted, bra color won’t be helping, but what could?
I don’t know about “social media”, but we can all purchase and wear a Diabetes Awareness T-Shirt when we’re out & about, such as at the gym or talking a walk in the Spring. Currently, I don’t own one but intend to get one the first time I have an opportunity to participate in a Diabetes walk (I don’t buy stuff off the internet). I suppose one could purchase and then sell diabetes awareness t-shirts or other items on craig’s list or the internet, donating a portion of the profit to diabetes research, of course.
I create products to raise awareness for type 1 diabetes and all proceeds go to benefit my team: Fighting The Unseen at JDRF.org. I receive none of the royalties for my own gain.
My store: http://www.zazzle.com/fightingtheunseen/gifts
I also wrote a book titled: Wretched (this is my sorry) about love and type 1. I am hoping to educate people who DON’T live with the disease about diabetes without them really realizing that they’re learning. 
Teach through entertainment, I say!
You can read the reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/Wretched-This-Sorry-Katherine-Marple/dp/1434885275/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263321659&sr=1-1
As for FB and stuff, I’ve been thinking the same thing. Maybe “How many meals have you eaten today?” as the FB status question and everyone involved will enter the number, signifying only a small percentage of the amount of injections diabetics would need to do per day.
We could probably suggest an icon or image to ask people to change their profile image to that, for one day, to raise awareness for diabetes…
I’m not on Facebook, but on Twitter, you can add a blue circle as a twibbon - Manny explains it here
http://www.tudiabetes.org/group/twitterbetics/forum/topics/add-a-diabetes-twibbon
We also use some hashtags for diabetes awareness #bgnow #bgwed and #bigbluetest made the trending topics on Nov 14 (World Diabetes Day) - check out the Twitterbetics Group here on TuD for more info.
if we could get a picture of our meters i think that could do it. There are so many types and colors, it could be a nice way to say hey we are here.
Oh the bra thing?? oh never mind.
LOL
rick phillips
Update your FB status w/ your last blood sugar reading. Everyone will want to know what that number in your status means.
ooooh! good one!
[thinking, thinking, thinking]
But… how can we get other people to be involved who aren’t diabetic?
What happened with the FB thing was this:
An email went out to all the women on FB saying to update their status to what their bra color is.
Then, everyone started asking “What is that?” and the email went out again to all the new friends who asked what the color in their status meant.
So, if someone asks me “what is that number?” then I’m going to send them the email to raise awareness, but what is their response status?
hmmm…
how about: "Update your status to how many units of insulin you took with your breakfast this morning."
So, my status would be: 5
Someone asks, “What’s that?” and i send an email stating:
Diabetes effects more than 220 million people across the world. An estimated 1 million people died from diabetes complications in the year 2005 alone. Diabetic related deaths are expected to double in the next 20 years. Diabetes has many different types and different faces, but the end result is the same: heart failure, amputation, kidney disease, blindness, coma and death.
Diabetic supplies without insurance can cost up to $10,000 per year. And that’s not including doctor’s office visits (4 times per year), hospitalization (on average once per year), or new medical devices meant to elongate the average diabetic lifespan.
After only 15 years after diagnosis, 4.4 million people will suffer from blindness. Many diabetics are diagnosed as children, others as adults, and others as seniors who have been living with the disease for years without knowing.
Update your Facebook status with the units of insulin you took this morning for your breakfast. Doing this will spread awareness to those who don’t know how serious a disease diabetes is- regardless of what age it was developed or what measures a diabetic needs to take to survive.
Help us band together to cure this disease so that it stops taking the lives of so many.
Any notes? Any suggestions about this idea? Any change in wording? How about should we notate the difference between the types?
I’m all for doing this. I actually am a bit jealous of all the exposure that breast cancer is getting. :*(
in your first sentence, it should say, Diabetes affects…" instead of “effects” - otherwise, great Marps!
haha. dammit. I mix that one up all the time!