Over thirty years ago a baby was born at Treliske Hospital. He was a bit sickly and after his Mum took him home he was still poorly. Fortunately, a bright young GP on his very first day at work had a flash of inspiration and squeezed the baby’s nappy into a glass beaker and put in a test strip. He told the stunned parents “Your son is a Type One Diabetic, and will need to do several blood tests per day and be injected with Insulin also several times a day, for the rest of his life” In those days’ syringes were heavy and made of glass and looked like the sort of thing used to stun a horse.

Fortunately, the little lad flourished on receiving superb treatment from the Doctors, Nurses and Clinics at RCH Treliske and he even went on trips away to British Diabetic Association weekends. He came back from one of these trips when about four or five years old and made a couple of profound statements. The first was “I have learned how to stab an orange to get the “blood” out of it, and I have learned how to inject Teddy with insulin. From now on nobody else is going to touch me or deal with my Diabetes, I am going to do it all myself”. The second one was “When I grow up I am going to become a Doctor and find a cure for Diabetes, and I won’t tell the secret to any girls!”

Well on Saturday 19th November 2016 he is back in Cornwall

Doctor Joseph Toms BSc. MBBS will be one of the guest speakers at the Mebyon Kernow National Conference taking place in the Cornwall Council Chamber at Lys Kernow (County Hall). He will talk about his education in Cornwall, his medical training in London and the fight to preserve the NHS as the flagship of the UK Care system. In particular, he will thank MK for its unanimous support for the Junior Doctors. Doctor Toms will also talk about how he scratches the usual Cornish itch, to sail from these shores to far flung areas of the world taking technology and skill to areas where it is most needed. He is part of a team from St. Georges Hospital in London that takes medical care into the foothills of the Himalayas where they have never seen a Doctor. This project needs to raise funds for equipment and also to stimulate other young professionals in other specialities as well as medicine to go out and help. Doctor Toms hasn’t found the cure for Diabetes yet, but he would be the first to admit that he is now far more kindly disposed towards girls.

If you knew Joe as a lad, or want to find out about training as a Doctor, or want to help his cause, come along to hear him speak. The Conference is free to attend and open to anybody.