In March this year, Diabetes UK celebrated a victory for people with diabetes after the Government agreed to cancel diabetes prescriptions fines following the successful “Dan!” campaign. At the PRWeek UK Awards, held at Grosvenor House, Park Lane on Tuesday 20th October, the campaign won the “Gold” Campaign of the Year Award as well as the Public Affairs and Not-for-Profit Campaign Awards as recognition of this achievement.
The “Dan!” campaign created a spoof clip of TV presenter Alan Partridge to create a humorous video aimed at persuading health minister Dan Poulter to stop fining people with diabetes for claiming free prescriptions. On the day it was launched, the video was viewed more than 1,000 times, the Facebook post reached 40,000 people and the Tweet was viewed 8,300 times.
The judges praised the campaign “for being creative and engaging while also simple, fun and shareable – and, ultimately, effective”. The video was produced at minimal cost by Diabetes UK’s in-house team and required just 30 hours of work. The campaign received support from celebrities, including actor Roger Moore, comedian Joe Pasquale, presenter Dominic Littlewood and singer Amelia Lily.
Chris Askew, Diabetes UK’s Chief Executive, said: “We are absolutely delighted that our work has been recognised in the PR Week Awards, with us winning three awards. They are a testament of the hard work, innovation and quick-thinking of our staff at Diabetes UK. Campaigning on behalf of people living with diabetes is a critical part of what we do and we are hugely proud of the success of this campaign in cancelling diabetes prescription fines.”
Many people with diabetes had claimed free prescriptions without any problems since they were first diagnosed without having a certificate, but since September 2014 thousands of people with diabetes had been fined up to £100 for not having a valid medical exemption certificate. The video succeeded in catching Poulter’s attention and the government agreed to change its rules on medical exemption certificates and reimburse people who had been unfairly fined.