WINNER

Rachel Humphreys

This year’s recipient for the NHS Wales Outstanding Contribution Award for Services to Diabetes is someone who has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of children and young adults living with diabetes in Wales. She graduated as a paediatric nurse in 2010. She developed the role as the Diabetes Link Nurse within the Children’s Assessment Unit at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales, Cardiff. In 2014, she was seconded onto the EDDY (Early Detection of Type 1 Diabetes in Youth) study, working in the community with schools and GP surgeries to raise awareness of the early signs of Type 1 Diabetes to try and reduce the number of children presenting in Diabetic Ketoacidosis. Following on from this, she joined the paediatric diabetes team at Cardiff and Vale UHB as a PDSN in 2016. She is now the lead co-ordinator for school education, organising and leading the Moving to High School Day for children going into Year 7, and organising and facilitating school staff education throughout the school year. Rachel is also the lead for Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorders (T1DE) within Cardiff and Vale and also the All Wales Project Lead for Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorders. She has been the driving force of the new project, T1DE Talks, working with Breathe Creative and she recently organised the first All Wales Professional T1DE Conference . If her service to diabetes is not enough, she is also a Trustee for Behçet’s UK. The recipient for this years’ NHS Wales Outstanding Contribution Award for Services to Diabetes goes to Rachel Humphreys.