All About Us
Hi,
Us is Alison and Dave Swanepoel (for those wondering how on earth to pronounce it, it is easy if looked at as Swan-a-pool).
I was born in South Africa (SA) and Dave in Northern Rhodesia, which is now Zambia.
He moved to South Africa in 1971 and we spent the rest of our time there until 2002 when we packed up ourselves, our cats and our courage and moved to the UK, arriving here on the somewhat inauspicious date of April 1st!
We, and the cats, now live in a small village called Baltonsborough in the county of Somerset, South West England.
Dave started out in engineering, first working on large earth moving equipment, moved on to air conditioning and, with the advent of the computer age, branched out into IT, ending up as a support consultant prior to leaving SA.
I worked first with mentally handicapped children and then trained as a diagnostic microbiologist before moving on to the full time job of rearing two children.
Finding the latter left me with time on my hands I started a hobby making ceramics, which got out of hand and grew into a business, taking over my life, my house and my familys spare time for almost 10 years!
So, you are wondering, How does this qualify them to produce a website dealing with diabetes?
Let me explain.
Daves main contribution is obvious, he knows the computer bit. We will not even begin to mention the value of his moral support!
Mine becomes equally obvious when I tell you I am a Type 2 diabetic with an insatiable curiosity for things medical, especially when applied to myself!
I also had my mother-in-law, who was an insulin dependant diabetic, living with us for 8 years, so got a good insight into that lifestyle, though things have moved on a little. At the time we had no glucose meters and all testing was via dip sticks and urine.
I am eternally grateful that my diagnosis occurred in a more modern age!
As I do have so much in common with Rudyard Kiplings Elephants Child - you remember the one from the Just So Stories, who was, to quote full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions, I have read and learnt, and am still learning, as much as I can about this disease.
It seemed reasonable to me that if I was interested there might well be other folk who were. Though there are plenty of sites dealing with diabetes, and very good ones at that, each and every one has something to offer and I hope that mine will to.
We all supply the knowledge in our own particular way and, as is said so often, YMMV (your mileage may vary). If something I have written makes just one thing clearer to one person I will have achieved my objective.
We hope you enjoy reading this site as much as we have enjoyed constructing it.
Alison & Dave.
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