Educating the Journalists of the Future!

A few days before the Sydney Twilight JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes I was contacted by first year Journalism student from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Lucy Thackray, to see whether I would be interested in contributing towards a video assignment she was putting together about the Walk.

It was one of those cases of being in the right place at the right time.

Lucy knew nothing about me, nothing about the support network that I founded and run, nothing about my involvement with the JDRF as a Peer Support volunteer, nothing about this Blog!

Lucy simply logged onto Facebook and looked up the Sydney Harbour Twilight Walk to Cure Diabetes in the Facebook Events listings - and came across my name - which, due to the fact that my initials are AB, showed up at the top of the list of people attending!

Any parent of a child with T1D will jump at the chance to raise awareness about this disease - so of course I agreed to meet with Lucy and arranged for her to come and interview the children and myself the next afternoon.

That afternoon Lucy had so many questions and there was so much to share with her that she ran out of space on the memory card in her University supplied video camera! Not to worry, she would finish her interviews with the kids at the Walk on 27 October.

Below is Lucy's video assignment - which is meant to run between 5-6 minutes. I have no idea how she managed to get it down to this length given that she started out with more than 2 hours of footage!

So, without further adieu...

Walk to Cure Diabetes Sydney 2011 - by Lucy Thackray

Starring... US!



The following video is the first draft - which is much longer - but I thought I'd share this with you anyway because it has a bit more about us, more of the interviews with the kids and myself and has some of the interview Lucy did with my sister, Marjo, who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at 38 years of age.




I would also like to share with you a lovely message Lucy sent me a short time ago after sending me the links to her wonderful video articles: 

"I feel so lucky to have met you all, I loved every minute of the experience and I laugh every time I watch the video, the footage shows what a beautiful family and what lovely people you all are. Everyone who has seen the video has felt so affectionate towards you and your family and inspired by everything you all do and the fantastic attitude you have. I visit your blog regularly and am so happy I can have a way of keeping up to date with how you all are! xx"


Lucy, the feeling is mutual.