During the two and a half years that have passed since I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure, the majority of my involvement in the diabetes community and other health advocacy efforts has primarily taken place online. When you take into consideration that I have a Bachelor of Science in Internet Technologies and work as a professional code monkey, the fact that I've focused so much of my attention and energy towards online advocacy really isn't surprising at all.
Like many of my fellow diabetes online community members, though, I've been longing for a way to take my advocacy efforts offline. And amazingly enough, my interactions with the online community have led to some pretty awesome opportunities for taking my message offline this summer.
The first opportunity came in the form of having my diagnosis story published in Diabetic Living's Summer 2011 issue. That accomplishment was the culmination of months of planning, writing, and editing, and has been well received. Diabetic Living has a circulation base of over 500,000, plus all of the single copy sales at grocery stores, etc... Pretty cool to think that something I wrote could reach that many people at once.
The Summer 2011 issue of Diabetic Living will be on newsstands until September. Check it out if you get a chance.
The second opportunity came when I was featured in a story on young type 2 diabetics, on the front page of USA Today's Life section on June 23rd. It all came about after I received an email from a contact at the ADA in Virginia, asking if I would be interested in talking with the reporter. I agreed.So, we did the interview by phone on a Monday, did a fun photo shoot the following Friday, and the story was published the following week.
The really cool part about the timing of the publication is that I was in San Diego for the 2011 Roche Social Media Summit on the day it came out. It was so great being able to share that moment with so many of my friends from the diabetes online community at the summit. And, of course, there's the fact that I was part of a story that helped raise awareness among USA Today's 1.8 million+ subscribers. That's just down right awesome.
I'm so thankful to have been given the opportunity help raise diabetes awareness in such big ways.
