Website Update
The HypoActive website is currently under repair - but we are currently
developing a completely new website, which should be online soon...
Latest News....
Tim Bates Dollar for Diabetes Biplane Jumps
November 19, 2007
Last Saturday Tooradin jumped the Biplane in memory of Tim Bates. 18 jumpers made the leap from 4,000ft which helped to raise money for Diabetes research.It was a really great day with an awsome vibe and we managed to raise lots of money. For many it was their first ever jump off a biplane. It was a bitter sweet day, the jumps were so good, but knowing that we were doing it because we lost a really nice skydiver and friend to many of us 2 years ago was a bit sad at times.But all in all was a good day.Tims legacy was remembered by many and we raised money for a good cause. And the best part is nearly everyone had to buy beer. Thank you to everyone who helped support the cause. Thank you the knightsy for his cool head being dzso and kingsley for his awsome load organising.Very Very big thanks to Laurie the biplane pilot who did an amazing job flying for us.
Your hard work and safe flying on the day was really appreciated by everyone. I will be burning some dvd's in due course. DVDs can be bought for $5 with all the proceeds going to the dollar for diabetes Tim Bates Foundation.
Click here to see the video.
JDRF Walk for the Cure
October 14, 2007
A great bunch of HypoActive crew were out in force for the annual JDRF Walk for the Cure at Albert Park Lake on Sunday, October 14. The weather was awesome, the crowd terrific, and more than anything, our t-shirts looked unreal. However despite our sure-bet entry in the t-shirt competition - thanks to the wonderful performance of twin type ones Hayley and Renee - we were upstaged by the gimmick model-your-t-shirt-on-your-dog trick. Next year will be ours!
Click here to see a few pictures from the day.
Lake Lillydale Paddle Training
October 7, 2007
Sunday October 7th saw the HypoActive first official/unofficial paddle training session for the upcoming Murray River Marathon. The day focussed on retaining balance on the TK2 kayak - not always an easy task. Everyone involved had a great time, and it looks like the Murray River Marathon will be a very fun experience with a good crew involved. Many thanks to Andrew Churchward for his time, equipment and patience with us. We will be training regularly over the coming months, with our next session on Sunday October 21, incorporating lunch from midday and training from 2pm. If you are interested in joining us, please fill out the form from our Murray River Marathon page.
Click here to see a few pictures from the day.
Insulin Injected Engines Fire on the Gold Coast
October 7, 2007
HypoActive made a great impression at the third annual Brisbane to Gold Coast ride on the weekend. With Gavin, Murray and Scott resplendent in their HypoActive shirts, the trio had a great time covering the official route in a super-speedy fashion and collecting a diabetically perfect 5.5 along the way.
Read more from Gavin's modest report.
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Gavin Wright, Murray Little and Scott Lahrs pay tribute
to the event's ride ambassador, Michael Voss,
following their triumphant ride to the Gold Coast |
How Do You Exercise?
Sheri Colberg-Ochs, author of the acclaimed bible for exercising with diabetes, The Diabetic Athlete, is currently compiling a second edition of the book. She is seeking information from active diabetics and how they approach exercise. A questionnaire is available from her website. This is a great opportunity to share your wisdom and be part of the next generation exercise bible! Responses will be collected until the 31st October 2007. The new edition is scheduled to be released in November 2008.
Visit Sheri's website - www.shericolberg.com/athlete-questionnaire.asp
Cognitive functioning in people with type-one diabetes
Simone Mangelsdorf, a PhD candidate from the University of Melbourne is looking for volunteers to take part in her research into cognitive functioning in type 1 diabetics. Read more >
HypoActive AGM
Held last Saturday, the election results were as follows:
| President: |
Monique |
| Vice-President: |
Spike |
| Treasurer: |
Daniel |
| Secretary: |
Chelle |
| Activities Officers: |
Andrew and Richard |
HypoActive Snow Bunnies invade Mt Buller
4am Sunday morning, usually a time reserved for struggling home from a big Saturday night, or for peaceful slumbers was shattered by the sound of alarm clocks last weekend as a group of diabetic adventurers struggled out of bed to take the bus to Mount Buller for the first ever HypoActive snow trip
Click here to read more.
Bendigo Diabetic Riders
Local Bendigo resident and type one diabetic Sue Beattie is keen to establish a diabetic riding network in Bendigo. If you live in the area and are keen to share your ride experiences with others with diabetes (type one or two), please contact Sue at goldleaf@impulse.net.au or 5448 8056.
RAAM and the ADA Conference
Click here to read more.
Please donate to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation - if in Australia, please click here.
Race Across America - FINISHED!!!
Team Type 1 - Monitored by Freestyle has won the RAAM
2007 Corporate Challenge.
CONGRATULATIONS TO TEAM TYPE 1- MONITORED BY FREESTYLE, who not only won the Corporate Division, they also earned the distinction of the fastest team in RAAM 2007.
Click here for more on Team Type 1's story.
Latest update from Monique
Click here to read the latest update from Monique!
Monique Hanley's Race Across America
Hi everyone
At 7am, Wednesday 13th June - Melbourne time - Team Type 1 will commence the 2007 Race Across America (RAAM) in an attempt to achieve the following:
1) win our division and set a new RAAM record, by completing the race in 5 days, 6 hours
2) promote to all, including type one diabetics out there, that type ones can achieve anything - even win the worlds toughest bike race
3) raise money to support JDRF to find a cure for type one diabetes
For more of Monique's story so far, click here.
HypoActive SnowBunnies Take to the Slopes!
It's cold, it's raining and that can only mean one thing - SNOW!!
With a beautiful 25cm of snow already covering the slopes on Mt Buller the time has come to test the freezing point of insulin and the impact resistance of insulin delivery devices...
As part of our Diabetes Week extravaganza celebrations come join HypoActive for a day of fun, snow and falling over. Never been to the snow before? That's ok, cos neither have we!
When: Sunday July 15 - bus departs Spencer St station at 4.15 AM, with additional pick up points in Box Hill and Ringwood. We return to Spencer St station at 9.30pm
Where: Mt Buller!
Cost: $165 - this includes bus to the snow, mountain entry, lift ticket and a 2 hour lesson to help you learn to fall over in style! And best of all it also includes lunch and a free sing-a-long on the bus trip. Depending on numbers it could also include a free cushion for sore behinds for the drive home... Ski, snow board and clothing hire extra.
Get in early to guarantee your spot on the bus! To book your place email laura @ hypoactive.org
C U all on the slopes!
HypoActive Rider Monique Hanley to compete in worlds toughest cycle race, the Race Across America
Riding with Team Type 1, Monique will depart the coast of San Diego on June 12 and alongside seven other type one diabetics, will ride continuously until they reach their destination of Atlantic City, some 4,900km away.
Team Type 1 aims for RAAM are threefold: to complete the challenge as the fastest team, promote awareness of the importance of good diabetes management, and raise money towards finding a cure for diabetes.
To support their fundraising goals, donate here.
More on Team Type 1
RAAM race updates
Murray to Moyne Number Five - A Diabetic Dawdle into the Damn Wind!
With four new riders and two new support crew, all minus working pancreas' and with little idea of their riding background, we weren't so sure how the team would fare this year. The current riding form and general fitness of our six returning riders from previous years was also a bit of an unknown. Enter the headwind from our start town in Echuca, consisting of a lovely south westerly wind which hit us head-on as we departed town. Would we survive the next 420km to Hamilton?read report...
Run for the Kids
Despite the morning rain, six runners fronted up to the Botanical Gardens to complete 15.2km of hills and stampedes for the 2nd annual Run for the Kids. A great event for the HypoActive bunch to take part in - and we'd love to do it again next year, bigger and better (if you have ideas or want to become involved please let us know!). pictures
Breaking news: HA completes the MS mega swim
Taking up the challenge that HypoActive spent too much time in lycra, a HypoActive team trimmed their lycra coverage and jumped in the pool for the MS mega swim, held on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th February, 2007.

This was the first time HypoActive, a team of type one diabetics, have completed a 24 hour swim challenge. The team consisted of 15 keen type one swimmers, who covered relay legs of up to 2km in the 50m Fitzroy Outdoor Pool in inner Melbourne. It was an impressive effort, particularly for the hardy crew who battled a 3am storm and subsequent rain showers through the early morning. The team was led courageously by captain Laura Rostron, who swam impressively for long periods during the quietest part of the early morning.

MS Megaswim 07 page
Ride to Cure Diabetes 07 Cath's report
The World Championship for diabetic cyclists - postponed
Now likely to be scheduled to coincide with the 2008 World Road Cycling Championships in Italy. Stay tuned for more details.
Fencer foils competition HypoActive founding member Adrian Connard cornered the local spotlight recently to promote the sport of fencing and how he handles this alongside his type one diabetes. link to article
Update from Cath 5 Days to go, this is the last `Update' you'll get from me.
Here I am slogging away on the hills, getting in some last minute training for the Ride for a Cure. I've been putting in about 250k's per week on the bike and have worn out my favourite riding niks, gone through a bottle of sunscreen and a bottle of fake tan. :-( Yes it's true - every bit of colour you see on my skin, comes out of a bottle!read on
Top Ten Type 1 Congratulations to Canberra's Fabio Calabria who secured ninth place at the Under 23 Australian Open Road Championships held at Ballarat on Saturday, January 13. On an extremely tough course suited to the strongest hillclimbers and distance riders, the 122.4km race was dominated by the professional outfit of the South Australia - AIS team. Despite riding without any teammates Fabio managed to work with those riders left in the race to bridge across to the final selection, finishing ninth overall. Results.
Picture (Fabio at right in his ACTAS gear)
Support Cath's Ride to Cure Diabetes On January 19-21 Cath will be undertaking the Ride to Cure Diabetes Challenge for JDRF. The ride covers 160km in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, but to participate all riders must raise funds supporting research into a cure for type 1 diabetes.read on
Upcreek without much of a paddle
In 2007 HypoActive is embarking on its biggest challenge - to successfully complete the annual Murray River Marathon challenge, the longest canoe paddle event in the world. To help us in our preparation, Laura and Matt were sent up-creek to act as support volunteers in the 2006 event in order to check out how the operation worked from a logistical perspective. But somewhere along the line they have both ended up with a paddle and in amongst the action. We caught up with them as they undertook some last-minute training preparation in their blue two-man kayak.read article
GVBR 2006
Reports and Photos
Buy the jersey
Keith's Half Ironman Full of Action
A half ironman? Not one to normally do things by half, Keith's experience at the recent Gold Coast Half Ironman was tempered by some wayward blood sugar levels, causing a lot of discomfort and time loss from cramping. It can happen to the best of us. Luckily for Keith his time was still fast enough to qualify him for the full Ironman course - a significant achievement for even a non diabetic! Read on to find out more about his fascinating experience..
Diabetic Donna goes Bua(oi)ng or It Doesn't get much better than this
Read Cath Stephensen's report about last weekend's Mt Donna Buang ride (and photos)
Skydive for Diabetes - 4th November
Tim Bates or "timbo" was a friend and reality checker (www.realitycheck.org.au) who died last year. Sadly Tim passed away in the middle of the night due to hypoglycaemia. Tim was very passionatey about many things in life but most importantly skydiving and advances in diabetes research. On the 4th of November every skydiving dropzone around victoria will be raising money to help fund diabetes research which is being conducted at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Their main focus is on a virus called rotavirus which is found to be strongly linked with the onset of the immune attack against beta cells.
We are hoping to raise a lot of money to help scientists progress with this ground breaking reasearch that could help millions of people at risk of developing type 1 diabetes.
I'm asking all of you to consider making a donation to this worthy cause. There are two ways you can do this. If you live in Victoria you can book yourself in for a tandem skydive with a portion of your proceeds going diabetes research. If jumping out of a plane isn't something your up for then you can make a donation directly to the Walter and Eliza Hall institute. I have all the brochures and details of what you need to do. If you are interested in making a donation please email me your postal address and I will organise to send out the info for you. My email address is briankirkham@iprimus.com.au
I hope that some of you will get on board and help with a donation, even if it is a small amount, every dollar helps.
Thanks muchly
Blue skies
Brian
Donation form (1.4MB pdf)
Here are the details of DZ's where you can jump.
Commando skydivers (my DZ)
http://www.commandoskydivers.com.au/
Skydive Nagambie
http://www.skydivenagambie.com.au/
Melbourne Skydive centre
http://www.melbourneskydivecentre.com.au
Skydive city
http://www.skydivecity.com.au/
"When in doubt, shoot. And always be in doubt." Type 1 diabetic scores 3rd pick in NBA draft
Type 1 diabetic Adam Morrison became the third pick of the 2006 NBA draft on June 28th, chosen by the part-Michael Jordan owned franchise the Charlotte Bobcats. Adam comes off a highly success College basketball career where he was league top scorer in the NCAA, averaging 28 points per game for his home town College, Gonzaga, in Spokane, Washington.
webnews of his pick
Read about how Adam copes with diabetes and big b'ball games
RAAM update
As mentioned previously, an all type 1 diabetic team contested the RAAM (Race across America). Team Type 1 finished 2nd overall in the teams section by only a matter of minutes. But in doing so they smashed the record for an eight-crew team, averaging around 22miles per hour - something like 37km/h
3 diabetics on everest within a week!
The first ever type 1 diabetic was Josu Feijoo http://www.nec.es/newsite/index.html
Click on the Everest Expedition 2006. Its all in Spanish, but the words tell the story no matter what language you read.
More Mt Everest News...
High-tech Help to Track Sugar
Chris Jarvis, 25, is a serious amateur athlete who has had diabetes since he was 14. He believes he owes it to his team and to himself to stay physically fit, and that means keeping tight control of his blood sugar levels. In 2004 he represented Canada at the Athens Olympics in rowing.
In April 2006 Jarvis ran the Boston Marathon in 3 hours, 10 minutes. During the event he wore a new device that tests his blood sugar levels continuously and provides a stream of information that allows him to know when and how much insulin he needs. It shows whether his glucose level is rising or falling, and gives a picture of how fluctuations occur around the clock.
Read more…
All-diabetic team to race RAAM
A team of eight diabetics will start this year's Race Across America on June 11 with high aims. Team Type 1 plans to win the eight-rider division of the non-stop coast-to-coast race in record time, and along the way "to prove to the world that type-1 diabetics can do anything, without restriction," as team member Steve Holmes put it.
As well as its race goals, the team is working towards raising US$1 million for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation www.jdrf.org.
The team was founded by former top collegiate cyclist Phil Southerland in 2005 as a way to raise awareness and education of type-1 diabetes. Other team members include Jay Hewitt, a ten-time Ironman competitor; former pro cyclist Steve Holmes; and Pratt Rather, the first diabetic to race in and complete the RAAM in 1995 (as part of a team). Rounding out the team are Linda Demma, Troy Willard, Robert Heyer and Joe Eldridge.
With the help of Abbott Diabetes Care and their Freestyle monitoring device, Team Type 1 hopes to make winning the team division look, well, as normal as possible. You can find out more information about Team Type 1 and their goal to raise $1 million for JDRF at www.teamtype1.org. (from Cyclingnews)
Young Type 1 Inspires NZ Basketballers
12-year-old type 1 diabetic Jordie Jamieson is so passionate about basketball he hopes to one day become a pro basketballer. His commitment has inspired Basketball New Zealand to adopt the charity Diabetes Youth New Zealand as their official charity for the National Basketball League. Read (or download and watch) this special news story here...
Murray to Moyne 2006 Report
“520kms
24 hours
10 riders
3 support crew
4 hours sleep
2 cases of sugar-free Red Bull…
…and an almighty case of wind.”
read on...
Winter Olympics
US skier and type 1 diabetic Kris Freeman recently competed at the Winter Olympics, placing 22nd in the 15km mens Classical cross-country skiing in a field dominated by eastern Europeans. Check out this recent interview which notes Kris's obsession for getting the perfect blood sugar balance, even if it means getting to events four days earlier than the rest of his competitors and listening to ballads as part of his warmup routine...
Jacobs Creek Ride to Cure Diabetes 2006
Congratulations to all riders who beared the insane heat to participate in the 2006 JDRF Ride for the Cure. Not only did each raise enormous amounts of money towards finding a cure for type 1 diabetes, they also rode in +42oC conditions through the hills and valleys of the Barossa. Jana Sidebottom, John Cronin, Andrew Elston, Gavin Wright and Kristyn Hunter all successfully completed the challenge and should feel very proud of their achievements. Read story...
Team Jabbers Conquer Lake Taupo
The Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge attracts riders from all over the world to complete a simple loop of stunning Lake Taupo read on....
Interview with Spike Beecroft
Spike Beecroft - affectionately known as HypoBoy thanks to the frequency of below par blood sugar levels has wowed HypoActive audiences with his sprints for town signs in mega endurance rides, and has kept hundreds of diabetes camp attendants in suspence from recounting terrific tales of hypo survival. read on....
“Diabetes didn’t stop me” – cycling over the Andes and into the Amazon
In August 2005, Gavin Wright, who has been a Type I diabetic for over forty years, cycled over the Andes in Peru, on the highest surfaced road in the world, and out to the Amazon city of Pucallpa. read on.....
Rotary Ride for Diabetes
Nathalia, Victoria. Rotary Club. Diabetes. Not three terms commonly associated with long distance cycle ride challenges. Yet all three came together last Sunday to put on one hellava bike ride in order to raise money for diabetics in rural communities in Victoria and to support the work of the Rotary Foundation. read on...
HypoActive on Rural Health Airwaves
HypoActive recently featured on the Rural Health Education Foundation program on Type 1 diabetes, chaired by Dr Norman Swan and broadcast to rural and regional health institutions across Australia. Further details (including a webstream of the program) are available at: http://www.rhef.com.au/programs/510/510.html
CHANNEL CROSSING
39 year old and type 1 diabetic Patrick Turner, recently completed the gruelling 21mile Channel crossing from England to France. His original preparations for the event encountered a major hiccup on diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in October 2004. Try testing your blood sugar mid-swimming marathon in choppy seas! Read all about his achievement here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4145464.stm
GOLDEN FENCE FOR DIABETIC
Champion fencer and type 1 diabetic, Adrian Connard, recently took gold at the latest round of the Victorian State fencing circuit. The result bodes well for his upcoming program including competing in the national series leading up to the Commonwealth Games.
HypoActive is pumped by the result and warmly congratulates Acey on his fine effort. |