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Reading this forum both fills me with admiration for the time, tact and care which laypeople devote to advising and encouraging fellow-diabetics, and with absolute horror at the appalling misinformation that is still peddled by so many healthcare professionals to the newly diagnosed. I initially thought that such stories were of old outdated medics with silly ideas that would soon wither away, but every indication is that things are if anything getting even worse. There is an obvious rationale to the e-petition for test-strips for T2s, but even if it were to succeed (which I strongly doubt) this would be of no use if diabetics are still being given such bad and misleading advice. The basic advice about diet and sugar levels that the forum moderator gives to newbies is not rocket science – it is clear, straightforward, uncontroversial. Should we really be campaigning to get this information on a single piece of paper, endorsed by diabetes.uk, put into the hands of every GPs practice and every diabetic nurse in the country, to be given to every newly diagnosed diabetic, rather than their wasting time and money on education courses that are mostly useless and often harmful? That way Grazer and co can spend their time offering sage advice on particular problems, rather than having to provide basic diabetic advice to the country’s entire ill-informed diabetic community one by one. The forum has a splendid record of individual victories, but the towering wave of uncontrolled diabetes is not going to be reversed this way. Diabetic complications will cost the country billions, prevention using test strips would cost a tidy though relatively small sum, but basic advice costs nothing as long as it is properly delivered, and diabetics are dying of ignorance. Any ideas for how we could campaign to get the information delivered?