Happy 16th birthday to our support forum!

Anna DUK

Anna DUK

Online Community Team Leader
Staff member
Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Pronouns
She/Her
It's our birthday! :starstruck::party:

16 years ago this online community was born, with many many thanks to @Northerner who created this space.

Over the years we have continued to grow, with now almost 40k registered members!

Thank you to each and every single one of you who use this platform, whether it be to find answers to the questions you have, share how you're feeling, support others, or even if you're just looking around without posting. We all make up this wonderful online community!:star:

With the warmest of regards,
Anna DUK
@everydayupsanddowns
@Ieva DUK
<3
 
Anna DUK said:
It's our birthday! :starstruck::party:

16 years ago this online community was born, with many many thanks to @Northerner who created this space.

Over the years we have continued to grow, with now almost 40k registered members!

Thank you to each and every single one of you who use this platform, whether it be to find answers to the questions you have, share how you're feeling, support others, or even if you're just looking around without posting. We all make up this wonderful online community!:star:

With the warmest of regards,
Anna DUK
@everydayupsanddowns
@Ieva DUK
<3
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Wow 16yrs :party: and now 40K registered users <3
I’m certainly glad I found it
 
happy birthday to us
 
Happy birthday Forum! It’s such a great resource, and has helped and supported thousands of people over the years 🙂
 
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Happy birthday, and thank you to all involved in creating and maintaining it.

At 16 it can now do all these things:

Drink wine, beer or cider with a meal in a restaurant.
Legally have consensual sex.
Get married with parent’s permission (or without in Scotland).
Join the Army with parent’s consent.
Get a licence to drive a moped.
Claim some benefits.
Open a bank account without parent’s permission.
Get a full-time job.

Someone had better keep an eye on it!
 
Happy 16th birthday to us! 🙂 I can't claim to have created it, that was thanks to original Admin Kati, who, I seem to remember, spent almost two years persuading DUK that such a space was needed right here in the UK. There is a commercial site with a similar name (which I am sure you are all familiar with) which preceded us slightly, and also the wonderful independent forum run by @PattiEvans 🙂 Patti was extremely helpful to me when I took over as Admin in March 2009, and I will always be really grateful to her for her help and advice 🙂 The forum really took off around that time, and I can honestly say that my 10 years as Admin were some of the most rewarding of my life, seeing often frightened and confused newly-diagnosed people get wonderful support and directed to superb sources of help and information from the many more experienced members 🙂 Sharing experiences - both triumphs and setbacks - has helped to build an extremely friendly and valuable resource for people, whatever your relationship with diabetes, whatever Type, whatever age, whatever walk of life 🙂 So thanks to EVERYONE who has helped over the years for making this a truly important community for tens of thousands of people 🙂

A special word also to remember two of our wonderful Moderators of years gone by, both taken far too soon, @AlisonM and @Copepod <3

Forum Meets1024.jpg
 
Dishevelled said:
Happy birthday, and thank you to all involved in creating and maintaining it.

At 16 it can now do all these things:

Drink wine, beer or cider with a meal in a restaurant.
Legally have consensual sex.
Get married with parent’s permission (or without in Scotland).
Join the Army with parent’s consent.
Get a licence to drive a moped.
Claim some benefits.
Open a bank account without parent’s permission.
Get a full-time job.

Someone had better keep an eye on it!
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I love this! It's made my day! <3
 
Northerner said:
Happy 16th birthday to us! 🙂 I can't claim to have created it, that was thanks to original Admin Kati, who, I seem to remember, spent almost two years persuading DUK that such a space was needed right here in the UK. There is a commercial site with a similar name (which I am sure you are all familiar with) which preceded us slightly, and also the wonderful independent forum run by @PattiEvans 🙂 Patti was extremely helpful to me when I took over as Admin in March 2009, and I will always be really grateful to her for her help and advice 🙂 The forum really took off around that time, and I can honestly say that my 10 years as Admin were some of the most rewarding of my life, seeing often frightened and confused newly-diagnosed people get wonderful support and directed to superb sources of help and information from the many more experienced members 🙂 Sharing experiences - both triumphs and setbacks - has helped to build an extremely friendly and valuable resource for people, whatever your relationship with diabetes, whatever Type, whatever age, whatever walk of life 🙂 So thanks to EVERYONE who has helped over the years for making this a truly important community for tens of thousands of people 🙂

A special word also to remember two of our wonderful Moderators of years gone by, both taken far too soon, @AlisonM and @Copepod <3

View attachment 32492
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Thank you for sharing these pictures @Northerner, and for your fantastic words, endless support and commitment. <3
 
Blimey - I should think the forum must have got excellent GCSE results and is well on the way to getting its A levels by now and should be instantly accepted into a University of its own personal choice anyway - assuming of course that its parents and it intend to follow that choice!

Happy birthday us indeed - and although of course I'm personally very grateful indeed to Patti, Alan and DUK, who gradually brought themselves into the 20th century whereas the forums all got there long before they did ! I have to say what keeps any forum going year after year is both its members and 'The Management' so neither could ever (and some of us will remember exactly who they were and the two Rons!) continue without the other, could they?

And @Northerner - RIP indeed people we miss, and UK John with his gorgeous parrot(s) face is also one I miss seeing and hearing from. There again most of us had no idea that a copepod even existed before we met the lady concerned on here, not being into Marine biology! (Just as fascinating as seahorses IMHO.)
 
trophywench said:
UK John with his gorgeous parrot(s) face is also one I miss seeing and hearing from
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The forum's first member, in fact, joined a couple of weeks before the official launch <3 I think @PhoebeC is probably the longest member of the forum still around, I think she also joined before the official launch 🙂 I joined on November 15th, which was the date I received my copy of Balance announcing the launch 🙂
 
You made me blush @Northener
 
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