Ex Mr Universe Mr Doug Burns was both the keynote speaker at dinner on Saturday, and final speaker at the conference on Sunday. Doug has had T1 since he was seven years old, and is now in his 40s… so he’s seen a lot of technology and improvements in the field come and go.

There wasn’t anything specific in his talk which I picked up on, apart from how good it was to have such a charismatic, enthusiastic, funny world champion in fitness telling his diabetes story and passing on his enthusiasm to everyone in the room. He – like Sean – didn’t have any other bodybuilding T1 role models to follow, so he chartered his own course (and he didn’t have the internet like Sean did either).

Doug touched very briefly on a very unfortunate incident which happened to him in 2007. He was at a movie theatre, and had an extreme hypo. As he staggered up to the snack counter to get something sugary, he was accosted by theatre security (who thought he was horrendously drunk) and eventually beaten and maced. He came to being given glucagon by a paramedic, and had charges pressed for assault and resisting arrest. More here. My research tells me the charges were eventually dropped, but not before poor Mr Burns had gone through an absolutely horrible time. I felt so sorry for him when he told us the story. But, in his usual style he has taken it in his stride.

This concludes my series of reports on the Diabetes Youth conference of 2009. There were other speakers, but I’ve selected the ones I found the most interesting or inspirational.