Guide for Young People With Diabetes Participating Duke of Edinburgh Award Expeditions

Taking part in Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award expeditions is an exciting opportunity for adventure, personal growth, and teamwork. For young people with diabetes, some additional planning and awareness can help ensure the experience is safe, enjoyable, and rewarding.

Preparation Before the Expedition

• Medical Information: Inform group leaders and supervisors about your diabetes management plan, and emergency contact details.
• Supplies: Pack enough diabetes supplies, including medication, blood glucose testing equipment, snacks, and hypo treatments. Bring extras in case of delays or loss. Think about back up equipment in case of technology failures and how to keep things cool in hot weather, and dry in wet weather
• Plan how to keep your kit safe and available: you will want to be able to easily get to your snacks, drinks and diabetes technology, if you need to access a phone or controller from your rucksack to see glucose levels, or manage glucose levels, or interact with your pump. Carry phones and controllers in waterproof pouches to protect them from bad weather. Rucksack straps on the waist/hips and arms can dislodge cannulas, sensors and pods. Think about where you wear your diabetes tech.
• Meal Planning: Plan your meals with your group to make sure that you all get enough carbohydrate for fuel. Everyone will need to have enough carbohydrate for energy. If you are camping and have never used a camping stove before, find out if there is an opportunity to practice.
• Emergency Procedures: Make sure everyone in your group knows how to recognise and respond to low or high blood glucose levels.
• Adjust your Insulin: Physical activity usually lowers insulin requirements. Have a plan to change your insulin doses before you start. Speak to the diabetes team about the best way to change your doses to avoid lows and highs. If you are not sure how being more active might impact your levels have a look at our guide to understanding exercise.

During the Expedition

• Monitor Blood Glucose Levels: Check your blood glucose regularly, especially before, during, and after physical activity. Try and check your glucose levels every 30–60 minutes. Use your sensor arrows to guide if you need to take on board extra carbs.
• If you are on a hybrid closed loop pump: use the features on the system to reduce insulin delivery to help prevent low glucose levels. Use your plan for the activity.
• Have regular top up snacks: everyone needs to snack for energy during exercise that lasts longer than 60 minutes. As a guide 30g carbohydrate an hour is a good place to start. Spread this over the hour. Have a plan for snacking. Example If your glucose levels are below 7–10mmol/l and falling have bigger snacks 15–20g if you are above 10mmol/L or your glucose levels are rising have smaller snacks 7–10g.
• Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water and keep an eye on hydration, as exercise and outdoor activities can increase fluid requirements. Sensors can be less accurate if you are dehydrated.
• Carry Hypo Treatment: Always have fast-acting glucose sources (such as glucose tablets or drinks) easily accessible for treating low blood sugar. See if the trip leaders can carry glucagon in the event of emergencies as well as some of your usual hypo treatments as a backup.

Top tips for camping and camp cooking

• Any meals or snacks that you are not sharing in a group can be pre portioned, remove any packaging you don’t need to save space and weight in your pack.
• Breakfast ideas: You want something that will give you energy to get started. Easy breakfast ideas include.
  • Instant porridge
  • Granola/muesli and powdered milk (pre mix this at home and portion out the number of breakfasts you need). Just add water to make an instant breakfast.
  • Breakfast bars or flapjacks (you can make your own)
  • Tortilla wraps with peanut butter or Nutella
  • Ready made pancakes
• Lunch ideas:
  • Wraps, crackers and oatcakes, sandwich thins or pitta breads are all good alternatives to bread.
  • Try fillings like cheese spread in tubes, pepperoni, baby bel cheese or cheese triangles, tuna in pouches.
  • Lunch pots – you can pick up chicken or tuna lunch pots in most supermarkets.
  • You could cook up some couscous or tuna the day before and make a lunch for day 1.
• Evening meals: you want carbs that are easy to carry and cook with some protein. Ready to eat camping meals can be expensive; you can also make your own.
  • Dried pasta, noodles and savoury rice are easy to carry and cook. You could also try risotto mixes.
  • Dried soups mixes can be used to make sauces with pasta. You can even cook the pasta in the soup mix and then add some protein (tuna, chorizo, tofu)
  • You can get pasta sauces in packets that are quick to make up in the supermarket.
  • If you like lentils and pulses, there are lots of vegetarian alternatives you can find in the supermarkets.
  • Microwave sauces and instant meal packets can often be heated on a camping stove with a little water
  • Tuna in packets and cured meats like Chorizo can be added to pasta or rice dishes.
  • If you have room pack a pudding, flapjacks, brownies, jelly pots, custard pots add extra energy to your meal
• Snack ideas
  • Dried fruit, mixed nuts, and trail mixes (make your own trail mix with your favourite nuts, dried fruit and a small amount of chocolate, smarties or M&Ms work well)
  • Cereal bars
  • Jelly sweets
  • Malt Loaf
  • You might need to plan to have a pre bed snack, this may not need any insulin.
• Things to avoid: food that melts easily in the heat, foods that go off quickly, food that needs loads of cooking, heavy cans and glass jars.
• Packing System: Pack your rucksack so that the things you need to get to quickly are easy to access not right at the bottom.
  • Use stuff sacks if you have them. Label them so you know what everything is.
  • Only unpack what you need overnight, it makes breaking camp faster.
  • Wear layers so it easy to strip off or layer up. If needed, you can wear all your clothes at night if you feel cold.
  • Have a small stuff sack with essential diabetes kit that you can grab easily at night if you need it. Keep essential kit dry. Use a few dry bags inside your rucksack and the tent.

After the Expedition

Activity can continue to impact your glucose levels for 48 hours or longer after an expedition. Make sure you refuel by eating well (carbohydrate and protein, helps you to recover faster). You may find you need less insulin for a few days after a 2 or 3 day expedition.

Final Tips

• Try your camping meals before you go.
• Plan for unpredictable weather and activity levels, which may affect blood sugar.
• Ask for extra water to be available that you don’t have to carry in your rucksack, remember that sensors can be less accurate if you are dehydrated.
• Always carry or have back up diabetes kit somewhere in case of technology failure.
• Be flexible, change the plan according to your glucose levels. You may need more or less insulin than you thought.
• Aim to keep your glucose levels between 7–10mmol/L as much as possible
• Celebrate your achievements and enjoy the adventure!