About
Diabetes UK is the leading UK charity for diabetes, established in 1934 and a member of the International Diabetes Federation since 1950 – with a break of 4 years from 2018-2022.
The vision of Diabetes UK is to create a world where diabetes can do no harm.
Main Focus
- To prevent type 2 diabetes.
- To support everyone affected by any type of diabetes.
- To help people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes to achieve remission
- To fund research that will one day lead to a cure.
Activities
Some of Diabetes UK’s key activities include:
Our mission is to have a world where diabetes can do no harm. This focuses on people already living with diabetes but we also have a strong emphasis on the prevention of type 2 diabetes in those at risk (being an active partner in the NHS England Diabetes Prevention Programme) and also in the prevention of type 1 diabetes, being the lead funder of the UK Immunotherapy Consortium, funding research into the prevention and possible cure of type 1.
Nearly 2 million people have taken our online type 2 risk assessment. We have also led the way in the remission of type 2 diabetes through our funding of the DiRECT programme which is now being trialled across England by NHS England (with us as a partner).
We ensure that people affected by diabetes are at the heart of all we do, working to ensure that all our activities are co-created with people who would most benefit from them.
We are very aware of the inequalities of diabetes, with people from more socially deprived areas and those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds being at highest risk, but often achieving the worst outcomes. So we continue to develop activities that target these communities, such as our Community Champions, often from BAME backgrounds themselves, who can raise awareness locally and support people in their communities to get the best care possible.
We have a strong reach across the diabetes community in all 4 Nations of the UK. For example:
- Our telephone helpline takes over 60-70,000 enquiries a year
- We have 13,000 active members of our online support forum
- 210,000 likes on Facebook and 181,000 followers on Twitter
- Over 90,000 people have registered on our Learning Zone online education platform
We fund about £6M of research every year, in all aspects of diabetes from basic science to clinical care. Our Research Impact report shows the difference we have made over 80 years of research funding:
Our annual healthcare professional conference attracts about 2,000 delegates from all HCP backgrounds. We also have various programmes to develop HCPs, such as our Clinical Champions programme. This is a two-year leadership development programme that provides the personal and professional development required to drive change across local health systems. Other HCP tools can be found at: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/professionals/resources