Bernadette (Berni) Warren was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1996 and in 2011 she was diagnosed with Diabetic Macular Oedema she also has cataracts and glaucoma. Last year, she was registered as severely sight impaired
After losing her job as a teacher in 2012 her faith led her to look for volunteering opportunities to share her experience of diabetes and sight loss from a patient’s perspective. To date she has worked alongside, ophthalmologists, optometrists and pharmaceutical companies and has spoken at a variety of professional and patient facing conferences as well as giving lectures in hospitals and universities.

She first started working with NICE in 2022 through member ship of the NICE Diabetic Retinopathy: management and monitoring guideline committee, this led to taking part in multiple NICE HTA’s and membership of NICE’s People and community Network (PaCN). In December during the All staff briefing 2 digital stories which focused on her journey with NICE were shown and in February, Bernadette spoke at Westminster at the event celebrating NICE’s 25th anniversary .

She is both a lay member of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the College of Optometrists. She also works alongside the RNIB, Diabetes UK and the Macular Society for whom she leads a DMO online support group.