I had the great pleasure to meet the lovely Russ Finnerty during my stint as MC for the Diabetes New Zealand conference at the start of the month. This man has energy to burn, a saying for every occasion, a cheeky sense of humour, and above all – he’s given years and years of his time to support the people of New Zealand who have diabetes. A type 1 himself, Russ has been President of Diabetes New Zealand twice – in 1987, and in 2002 + 2003. He was kind enough to share his story with us. Here it is.

“I knew I’d get a third one this week.  Things always come…

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I got back from conference on Sunday night, absolutely exhausted. I always find it amazing how tired you get just sitting there at conferences… and it didn’t help that we had our six month old son in the room with us both nights either I guess – gosh babies can make some noise even when they’re sound asleep! (Actually add to that the fact that it was our first flight with him: I encourage any of you who are not already parents but are planning to be to take at least one aeroplane flight before you have children, and sit back, relax and do what you want – that is currently something I imagine I’ll be able to do again…

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