balance replies to me in person

[mikep1979]

this is an email i recieved today off diabetes uk in reply to an email i sent them about the letters off the nurse in balance.


Dear Mike,

Thank you for your email to Diabetes UK.

We are sorry to learn that you are unhappy with our decision to publish two letters by Balance reader M J Jones ('Your letters' Balance, March/April 2009 and July/August 2009). Please allow me to respond to your comments on behalf of the Balance team.

The 'Your letters' section of Balance is a place for members of Diabetes UK to express their views. We aim to be as open as possible when publishing readers' viewpoints and only ever censor letters that are libellous to an individual or factually incorrect. We feel that everyone is entitled to their opinion - even when they don't agree with the charity, the magazine or the majority of our readers.

We clearly state at the beginning of the 'Your letters' section (page 8) that the letters published do not necessarily represent the view of Diabetes UK. Please be assured that the opinion of the letter writer in question is in no way reflected in any of the regular articles of Balance, written by members of staff.

Publishing differing opinions helps bring out important issues and opens up debates through which readers' experiences are shared and 'the voice' of the majority of people with diabetes is heard. This has certainly been the case with the topic of injecting in public. We had a huge response from readers who disagreed with the original letter writer's viewpoint, and, in the May/June 2009 issue of Balance, we printed sixteen of these letters to represent the majority opinion.


The current issue of Balance (July/August 2009) contains a further four letters from readers who disagree with the original letter writer, and one from a reader who expresses her preference for injecting in private. Our reason for including a reply from M J Jones was to enable her to respond to the high volume of criticism published in the May/June issue. We do appreciate that her comments may have offended some readers, and we do apologise for any offense caused.


We hope this explains our reasons for publishing the letters in question. We are sorry to learn that you won't be renewing your subscription to Balance and we do hope you reconsider.



Thank you once again for contacting us and giving us the opportunity to reply.



Kind regards,

Kate Flagg
Publishing Coordinator
Diabetes UK
Tel: 020 7424 1190


In its landmark 75th year, Diabetes UK aims to raise over ?7.5 million to fund research to improve the lives of people with diabetes.
Visit www.diabetes.org.uk/75years to find out more


what do you think of it?????

 

[bev]

Hi Mike,

The question should be - what do you think about it? I suppose there really is nothing they can do about it all now - its too late. The deed has been done and it cant be un-done.
When we were trying to get Alex's sharps bins collected - we were told we had to put them on the step for the council van to collect, but i really didnt want to have it on the step because i worried that people would think a druggie lived in our house and i didnt want Alex to be teased or anything. I then felt very angry with myself for thinking this way, and luckily our gp agreed to take them. But, after reading this letter from this cretin, i realise that perhaps i was right with my thinking and i am glad i chose not to have the bin collected. She cant be the only person who views diabetics as druggies - so my inner-most instinct was right. I am just unbelievably sad that we have to worry about being stigmatised - due to a life threatening condition that our children cannot help and are fighting against every single day of their lives. It beggars belief and makes me wonder what has the world come to?Bev

 

[mikep1979]

Hi Mike,

The question should be - what do you think about it? I suppose there really is nothing they can do about it all now - its too late. The deed has been done and it cant be un-done.
When we were trying to get Alex's sharps bins collected - we were told we had to put them on the step for the council van to collect, but i really didnt want to have it on the step because i worried that people would think a druggie lived in our house and i didnt want Alex to be teased or anything. I then felt very angry with myself for thinking this way, and luckily our gp agreed to take them. But, after reading this letter from this cretin, i realise that perhaps i was right with my thinking and i am glad i chose not to have the bin collected. She cant be the only person who views diabetics as druggies - so my inner-most instinct was right. I am just unbelievably sad that we have to worry about being stigmatised - due to a life threatening condition that our children cannot help and are fighting against every single day of their lives. It beggars belief and makes me wonder what has the world come to?Bev

well bev how do i feel???? i feel very very let down, upset, furious. words cant come to close to saying what i feel!!!! i am not a druggie i am a diabetic and why should any of us have to feel like these letters have made us feel???? if she is type 2 is she on metformin??? if so why is it socially more aceptable for a tablet to be taken at the table than insulin??? oh and the size of our needles are so fine and small that you would need to be sat virtually on top of us to see them!!!! if your looking that hard then what you looking at me for????

 

[mikep1979]

and bev alex is a superb lad and we can all see how proud you are of him. i just hope that what has been said in the balance magazine doesnt make him feel like he shouldnt be injecting in public.

 

[Einstein]

Same empty rubbish as before. At least they put Dear Mike!

When are they going to wake up and realise they have just been responsible for tarring every insulin dependant diabetic as a junky?

This letter needed editorial control and the editorial team of balance are clearly incompetent and arrogant in the extreme.

The publication of this letter wasn?t a collective decision, at most couple of individuals must have taken the decision ? if it was a collective decision then the whole team should be fired as clearly they are constructing a magazine every 2 months to an audience that they have absolutely no connection with at all. The only care they have is being paid at the end of the month.

Its high time we stop having a few people covering their backsides, making excuses and hiding behind terms and phrases that are of academic value. Their explanation both on this forum and on Facebook explaining unless the comments were defamatory et-al then the ?not expressing the views?.? would stand. They are a direct and absolute assault and insult on every insulin dependant diabetic.

This woman says and Balance published the term we?re insulin junkies ? get out of that one! They had a massive backlash to the original letter, why give this rude, ignorant woman any more space?

Do you they want to keep winding people up by publishing the same excrement until we all agree and feel so bad about injecting that we run off to a filthy, unhygienic toilet to take our fix in?

We killed this stigma of breast feeding mothers having to vanish out of sight while they fed their baby years ago. But I presume the editorial team at Balance and this woman expect that they should retire to smelly, filthy toilet as well?

It does raise the question of is this editorial team so mentally dysfunctional and lazy that they can?t find more constructive content, that they waste two pages (if you include the readers comments a couple of pages on) on the same topic that has already been covered and they have clearly struggled yet again to find anyone able to agree with her.

The letter from the lady who said she needed to go in private to inject is actually the sort of person who has now had her confidence knocked even further by the author of this rant and by the fact this incompetent editor went ahead and published a derogatory and personally insulting letter in the magazine that he is in charge of.

As for the injecting through clothes, I agree with her it isn?t hygienic, but I?d not go into my own bathroom to inject so I am 195% sure I?d not go into a public toilet as they are vile, disgusting places, bug ridden. Usually I inject in my stomach by simply undoing a button at or below the level of the table.

The editorial team at Balance are a very poor reflection on the charity as a whole, I feel sorry for the other staff at DUK being represented by this group of individuals.

 

[mikep1979]

well said david

 

[Steff]

yes well said i for once aint seen any sort of apology in here as of yet

 

[Einstein]

Hi Mike,

The question should be - what do you think about it? I suppose there really is nothing they can do about it all now - its too late. The deed has been done and it cant be un-done.
When we were trying to get Alex's sharps bins collected - we were told we had to put them on the step for the council van to collect, but i really didnt want to have it on the step because i worried that people would think a druggie lived in our house and i didnt want Alex to be teased or anything. I then felt very angry with myself for thinking this way, and luckily our gp agreed to take them. But, after reading this letter from this cretin, i realise that perhaps i was right with my thinking and i am glad i chose not to have the bin collected. She cant be the only person who views diabetics as druggies - so my inner-most instinct was right. I am just unbelievably sad that we have to worry about being stigmatised - due to a life threatening condition that our children cannot help and are fighting against every single day of their lives. It beggars belief and makes me wonder what has the world come to?Bev

Bev, I agree about leaving them on the doorstep, I leave them in my recyling box (the black one) as I rarely use it, and its emptied on Thursdays, while the sharps collection is on Monday, so works well.

I think all of us are of the same opinion at that someone at Balance e.g. the editor having realised the degree of the backlash should have closed the topic, not given her further right to go on and insult each and every insulin dependent diabetic.

Thats whats wrong, we can all write insulting letters and send them to a magazine, only 99% of magazines would block such an intrusive letter as this and either edit it severely or not publish it.

They did publish it, and the reflection on DUK because of their mouthpiece publication is now dire.

DUK NOT Balance or the 'Balance team' need to make a statement and tell us, their members and all insulin dependant diabetics what they are to do to resolve this matter.

I'm tired to hearing the editor of this magazine ducking his reposnsibilty and putting the whole of Balance up as being united on this front. It's wrong and if he's a man he should stand up and take it as a man.

I now think its time his employers actually declared what they are going to do about the matter.

 

[insulinaddict09]

What a bunch of t*****s !!!!!!!! 😡😡😡😡



HA HA THEM !!! NOT US LOL

 

[Steff]

What a bunch of t***s 😡😡::

love you to addict lolol:

 

[Einstein]

In its landmark 75th year, Diabetes UK aims to raise over ?7.5 million to fund research to improve the lives of people with diabetes.

Ok, to this I am lost for words I can possibly type hear... Perhaps

DREAM ON!!!

Oh, and just how are they going to improve our livees - given we're all junkies in their eyes!

 

[mikep1979]

good one mate 🙂

what was the annual expenditure for wages of duk last year david???? wasnt it something like ?6.5 million???

 

[mikep1979]

just found out to that in 2007 duk spent ?6.7 million on wages and ni and pension contributions!!!!!! and they want to raise ?7.5 million for the lives of diabetics so they can change it for us???? more like to pay for their over inflated wages!!!!

 

[Copepod]

There's only 1 job advertised on Diabetes UK website just now. I reckon ?23,000 for an office administrator in Belfast is reasonable. The total of ?6.7 million in wages, NI and pensions may be reasonable too, depending on number of people employed.

 

[mikep1979]

i find ?23000 for an office administrator to be well over the going rate!!!! i would say between ?15k and maybe at a push ?20k would be reasonable. over this is excessive. the office administrators where i work get about ?14.5k a year.

 

[aymes]

just found out to that in 2007 duk spent ?6.7 million on wages and ni and pension contributions!!!!!! and they want to raise ?7.5 million for the lives of diabetics so they can change it for us???? more like to pay for their over inflated wages!!!!

I work for a charity of similar size and scope as DUK and I know from past experience that their salaries are pretty comparable to ours, I can promise you that charity salaries are not, on the whole, overinflated and are generally considerably below market value for comparable jobs in other sectors.

 

[mikep1979]

I work for a charity of similar size and scope as DUK and I know from past experience that their salaries are pretty comparable to ours, I can promise you that charity salaries are not, on the whole, overinflated and are generally considerably below market value for comparable jobs in other sectors.

ok so ?23k is normal for an office administrator??? i dont think so at all. i would have to say it is well over the highest end of payscale for this type of work. as for the rest of the salaries i cant say as the financial report they publish is very sketchy and wont go into individual salaries.

 

[angel30eyes]

So not only has the writer of the said insulting letter got us seeing red now we are fighting amongst ourselves, I bet she is sitting there laughing her socks off!

 

[Einstein]

I work for a charity of similar size and scope as DUK and I know from past experience that their salaries are pretty comparable to ours, I can promise you that charity salaries are not, on the whole, overinflated and are generally considerably below market value for comparable jobs in other sectors.

I don't dispute the salary spread per annum, however, if ?23k is the average and there is ?5.5m in basic salary (exc NI and pensions) that is still a fair head count and from whats being aired at the moment, the underlying question is does it represent value for money and are they representing their membership with a whole package of services and information that the membership wants?

It rather appears that perhaps this isn't the case.

How many people actually use the DUK helpline?

In which time its time DUK begin to listen rather than spouting the message they wish us to listen to.

 

[aymes]

ok so ?23k is normal for an office administrator??? i dont think so at all. i would have to say it is well over the highest end of payscale for this type of work. as for the rest of the salaries i cant say as the financial report they publish is very sketchy and wont go into individual salaries.

Mike, I'm not planning to get into a debate about their individual recruitment practices, the office managers role they are advertising, and the duties that the jd describes seems reasonable to me, my perspective only. The only point I was making was that although a wage bill of ?6.7m sounds a lot when highlighted it is not necessarily unreasonable nor any different that what would be expected of a similar organisation in the sector.