Local volunteer wins award for working with children with diabetes

Claire Pesterfield, a Children’s Diabetes Nurse from Cambridge, has been awarded the Diabetes UK Volunteer Achievement Award for Working with Children and Young People. Her achievements were recognised at the Diabetes UK Voluntary Conference in Manchester recently.

Claire Pesterfield

Claire, who works at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, has been involved in the leading health charity’s children’s support holidays for many years. This year, as well as organising a holiday in Abernethy, Scotland, for 26 children, she also ran insulin pump training for all the healthcare professionals that volunteered on the seven children’s holidays run by Diabetes UK this summer.

Helen Johnston, Volunteer Development Officer at Diabetes UK, said: “We can’t thank Claire enough for all her hard work. The holiday she organised had a fantastic programme of activities and allowed the young participants to meet others with diabetes and take the first steps towards managing their condition themselves.

“Without Claire’s training course, it would not have been possible for the growing number of children and young people using insulin pumps to attend any Diabetes UK holidays. Her work to educate other healthcare professional volunteers meant that 30 children with pumps were given the opportunity to gain skills and confidence to self-manage their diabetes. Claire thoroughly deserves this award for the huge difference she has made to so many lives.”

Claire attended the Diabetes UK Voluntary Conference in Manchester on Saturday 10 October, where she received her award. She said: “This award came as a great surprise and I am very grateful to Diabetes UK for it. Diabetes can be a devastating condition, but working with children on these holidays is a blast and there is nothing better than jumping into a freezing loch in an effort to help them learn about their diabetes in a fun way! All the volunteers I work with deserve a share in this award.”

Diabetes UK is the leading charity for the three million people in the UK with diabetes, their family, friends and carers. Our mission is to improve the lives of people with the condition and work towards a future without diabetes. There are currently 2.6 million people diagnosed with diabetes and up to 500,000 who have the condition but don’t know it.

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