Fundraising for Diabetes SA

I always enjoy the moment with things that are still some way off in the future where you think to yourself “this is starting to get real”.

We’re now a little over two months away from our start date of 31 July 2022 and its surprising how quickly time seems to be moving.

With the hey Heysen website now built and being populated with content, we've turned our attention to fundraising and have resolved to raise money for Diabetes SA.

After reaching out in early May, we were delighted to hear back from Sabine Kloss, Brand and Philanthropy Manager for Diabetes SA in very short order and are now in the process of finalising arrangements preparatory to launching the hey Heysen website and the fundraising drive.

As a Type 1 diabetic, I want to emphasise the message that a chronic condition doesn’t have to be a barrier to pursuing one’s passion or taking on big challenges like the Heysen Trail. So much of managing diabetes is mental and maintaining a positive outlook is critical to wellbeing.

A great piece of long-distance hiking wisdom is to ‘never quit on a bad day’, recognising that bad days are a small part of the broader journey. It also fits perfectly for managing diabetes.

Speaking with Sabine has also been incredibly informative, particularly hearing about research that shows Type 1 diabetics must make an additional 180 health-related decisions every day – equivalent to one decision every five waking minutes!

This is something that I’ve often felt intuitively but it was enlightening to hear it explained this way – it certainly explains the mental exhaustion that creeps up from time to time.

I always try to look for silver linings with diabetes and the simple fact that it demands careful planning is a definite advantage in planning for a through-hike. It’s become a habit to always ask myself ‘what will I need to take’ before I go anywhere.

Preparing hiking gear, planning nutrition, planning an itinerary and resupply feels like a natural extension of this question that always sits in the back of my mind.

Without being too cheeky about it, I’d go as far as to say that diabetics have a learned advantage when it comes to planning and logistics – we do it all day every day!

Following our discussions with Sabine we learned that Diabetes SA was heavily impacted by COVID-19 which resulted in a significant drop-off of funding for diabetes research.

As such, we’ve decided that all funds raised will be directed toward this important work, which you can read more about on the Diabetes SA website: here

We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Diabetes SA and to be officially launching things in the very near future!