Seven thousand feet

Seven thousand feet is an art and science project which was part of the Manchester Science Festival (MSF). MSF was 18 - 28 October but the exhibition continued after the festival and was further extended to 22nd November. The project was informed by the medical condition diabetes and takes its name from the approximate number of diabetes related lower limb amputations in the UK each year. This was the statistic when I began the project and sadly has since increased. It shocked me and as my Granny had Type 2 diabetes I decided I needed to find out more. The exhibition took place at the Manchester Central Library, St Peter's Square M2 5PD. Diabetes UK then asked us to take some of the work to their professional conference in Liverpool in March 2019 – you can see more about this in the Seven thousand feet / Liverpool conference section. I’ve spearheaded the project, in collaboration with my mentor Dr Martin Rutter and have been working with an amazing bunch of medics, scientists and artists. I’ve created my own work and curated work from other artists who are all students and graduates from Manchester Metropolitan University. All our work is informed by high quality science provided by the expert partners we're working with. It sets out to communicate in innovative ways and to inspire real changes in human behaviour. We’ve also showcased some of the latest diabetes technology and organised lots of art and science drop-in sessions for visitors to experience. We had thousands of visitors and held drop-in sessions, a Techfest, a full-day hands-on session at the Museum of Science and Industry and a special World Diabetes Day event on 14th November. These provided opportunities to see and do art and science with many specialists on hand to talk to. You could find out your own risk, test your sugar levels, create your own footprint for our mural and lots more besides. We were fortunate to secure a grant from The Physiological Society to develop additional work for the project. Collaborating with researchers at MMU and Research for the Future (R4F) we created The Fascinating Family - research tools for R4F to use for public engagement at diabetes. Please see their own page for details. We gained lots of press and publicity and masses of amazing feedback. We also developed a website where you can find out more about the project and exhibition. We are continuing to look at initiatives with healthcare providers to develop their own projects inspired by ours, including specialists Podiatrists. https://sites.google.com/view/seven-thousand-feet/home We've also won several awards for the project from NHS, the Health sector and the University of Manchester: University of Manchester Making A Difference Awards for Social Responsibility 2020 - Highly Commended for the Seven thousand feet team. National Quality in Care (QiC) Award in Diabetes for Collaboration of the Year - Adults 2019 - Highly Commended. University of Manchester Outstanding Contribution to Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement 2019 - Highly Commended awarded to Christine Wilcox-Baker for Seven thousand feet project. NIHR CRN Greater Manchester Awards for Public Engagement (2019). Winner of the Best Public Engagement Contribution category. University of Manchester Making a Difference Award for Social Responsibility 2019 - Commendation for to Christine Wilcox-Baker to recognise outstanding public contribution to share knowledge, We’ve worked alongside some amazing practitioners and here are some of their sites so you can find out more about the condition and some of the research that is taking place: Prof Roy Taylor at Newcastle University: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal/#publicinformation Manchester Metropolitan University https://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal/#publicinformation Research for the Future https://www.researchforthefuture.org/about-us/ Diabetes UK https://www.diabetes.org.uk/diabetes-the-basics