MDUK Content Advisory Group #MDconf17

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Yesterday I attended the first face to face meeting of the Content Advisory Group in Birmingham, the meeting was held the day before the National Annual Muscular Dystrophy Conference 2017.
The Content Advisory Group (CAG) started in January 2017, it is a voluntary group and includes people from all over the UK.
If, I was asked the question - What does this group mean to you?  without a second thought I know I could easily convey that the groups means that the voices of people with muscle-wasting conditions are reflected in all of the content created by MDUK, basically keeping the people at the heart of everything created by the charity  from leaflets to event posters.
I would be joking if I didn't admit, that leading up to the CAG meeting I felt a little apprehensive and actually a little nervous.  People that know me well know that I like nothing more than a good chat, with anyone!
 Unsure of what to expect, I made my way on the train (9 minute journey from New Street Station to Birmingham International) then cheekily jumped in the Hilton Shuttle, although in my defense I was staying in a Hilton Hotel on Broad Street.
A couple of brief introductions while grabbing a coffee and a cuddle with an MDUK staff member, who actually feels more like a friend,  I quickly picked a seat and nervously said hi to the people next to me.
Ten minutes in and I felt completely at ease, I started to relax, a little self conscious of anyone noticing my chest line but knew I was in a safe environment.  I knew at the tea break that I would write a blog piece, infact I felt compelled too! I actually wanted to just explain the fact that 'Content Advisory Group' isn’t really the best way to describe it; it’s so much more than that. It's a group of people who, despite our backgrounds or experience, at the heart of it, we share passion and the determination to actually just be heard, just be noticed and to above​ all give our time voluntarily to just make a difference no matter how small.

Over the years, I have lost count of the fancy functions, high brow meetings and conferences I have attended either through work or my golf and hand on my heart, I can openly say for varying, maybe personal reasons this catapults itself to the top; highly motivational, inspirational and an all-round fantastic voluntary group to be a part of.
I was sat in the middle of two people that without this voluntary group, I would have never met and the insight we shared in just a couple of hours will resonate within me for the rest of my life for different reasons.
Whilst I was able to rekindle my love of little break out group work, my biggest takeaways from CAG 2017 were a bit more personal.  I have undergone some mindset shifts, I have come away with new perspectives, realisations and even epiphanies…whatever you want to call them!
At 04:46am the morning after the meeting, I must confess that as usual, I have been awake a while and have a million and one thoughts swirling around in my head, one being that since 2012 Sport England 'apparently' made disability sport a key focus.  They wanted to make sport a practical and attractive lifestyle choice for disabled people and to get more disabled people playing sport, I sit here asking myself what has happened to the £171 million invested??
I’m sure more sound bites and conversations will keep me focused over the coming weeks and months, as I really process the information we shared.
For information on MDUK
http://www.musculardystrophyuk.org/

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