The Ascensia Blog Is Back!

January 27, 2023 | By Renza Scibilia

Diabetes blogs have been around for a long time. My first foray into blogging was eighteen years ago. I was pregnant with my daughter and wrote a weekly pregnancy diary for an Australian diabetes website. A few years later, I started Diabetogenic with the incredibly selfish aim of creating a way to connect with others with diabetes. It worked and through my own writing and finding the writing of others, I have indeed connected with people in global the diabetes community.

I'm honoured to be writing this piece which announces that, after a short hiatus, the Ascensia Blog is back, and once again is centring people with diabetes as content creators and writers to give uniquely personal perspectives of diabetes issues and concerns.

There are some familiar faces and some new ones. We think that you'll find our stable of writers represent diabetes communities across the globe and hope that you will learn about life with diabetes from different perspectives. I know that these incredible writers and advocates all have a lot to say!

And so, here's a short introduction to who you'll see contributing to the Ascensia community blog:

Stephanie Haack is an energetic diabetes advocate from Germany who is active across social media, especially Instagram. Steffi's Ascensia's post have been honest and thought provoking.

Corinna Cornejo is from the US and writes about her experiences of living with type 2 diabetes. She is a dynamic advocate who excels at dispelling myths and working towards stopping diabetes stigma.

Phyllisa Deroze is a diabetes advocate and writer and continues to emerge as one of the most prolific and well-respected writers on representation of diabetes in the African American community.

We're also delighted to welcome:

Tinotenda Dzikiti can't be missed these days in the diabetes online community. He is prolific across his podcast and blog and regular social media posts. Tino defines community in so many ways and will be sharing stories about living with diabetes in Zimbabwe.

David Burren is known as the Bionic Wookiee in online diabetes spaces and has a great presence in the diabetes technology world. He can be found explaining the latest in user-led technologies and is an advocate in the #WeAreNotWaiting community.

And, I'm back too, and delighted to continue working with Ascensia because their commitment to platforming people with diabetes both here on the blog as well as their Social Media Summits has been admirable. It's always great to work with diabetes technology companies that are clearly is willing to create spaces for people with diabetes to share, connect and drive conversation, and, perhaps most importantly, listen and work with us to better understand what living with diabetes is all about. One example of this is the brilliant Diabetes Technology Back Up Planning guide. The idea for this resource came from the community and was then developed by a broad group of people with diabetes.

The diabetes community is vast and there are so many different perspectives, stories and views. While we certainly can't say that we represent all cohorts from every corner of the world, we have brought together a diverse group of advocates who will share very different realities of their diabetes experiences and stories from their unique perspectives. They have all demonstrated inclusivity and commitment to the diabetes community through their advocacy.

In coming months, you'll see introductory posts from the new and existing advocates, covering a broad range of topics. The posts that have already been published will remain. We'll continue to present topics that are sometimes considered taboo and continue to be frank and open in what you see. The words you read are honest and authentic stories of people with diabetes. We hope that you enjoy reading!

Renza Scibilia is from Melbourne, Australia and authors the blog Diabetogenic about real life with type 1 diabetes. Renza has lived with type 1 since 1998 and for the last fourteen years has used an insulin pump. She works for Diabetes Australia and is a proud member of the Diabetes Online Community (DOC). She is a diabetes consumer representative and a vocal advocate for ensuring the voice of the ‘patient' is heard loud and clear.
The opinions presented in this blog post are those of the author and may not represent the opinions of Ascensia Diabetes Care. Ascensia have paid Renza an honorarium for her services as a contributor to this blog.