A very successful event was held by Members of Parliament in the UK who invited constituents with diabetes to enter an art exhibition with entries displayed at the House of Commons.
The event generated a great deal of media attention for both the exhibitors and for their Members of Parliament.
It formed part of a Diabetes UK campaign to highlight the need for a plan to tackle the backlog in diabetes care caused by the pandemic.
Among those who presented their art were a retired maths teacher, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2008. A teenager from Elton, Cheshire, who shared a moving portrait of life with type 1 diabetes as part of an exhibition on the impact of the condition.
A 14-year-old girl who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at just two years old, submitted a drawing which expressed her experiences of living with the condition and the stress and anxiety it can cause.
The links below some a small sample of the many newspaper reports across the country where MPs had constituents who took part.
https://www.petersfieldpost.co.uk/news/mp-backs-diabetes-call-545894
Advocacy Action: Have you considered using art to highlight a health issue such as through a competition, exhibition, or meeting? Can you work with a patient organisation to organise something similar?