Diabetes UK appoints marketing head

Health charity Diabetes UK has appointed Dawn Jackson as its first director of membership and marketing.

The charity had been seeking to fill the position since July after a strategic review which persuaded it to establish a dedicated marketing department for the first time (MW July 24). Jackson will oversee a team of 52.

Jackson was previously marketing director of Leisure Connection, which manages facilities for local authorities and Sport England. Before that she was marketing director for the British Nursing Association, and worked in marketing roles for Rentokil Initial, Thorn EMI Rentals and Toshiba.

Jackson says the charity wants to establish new third-party deals and will prioritise increasing its membership base. The charity says there are 1.4 million people in the UK who have diabetes, and estimates there are another million who are unaware they have the condition.

Following the adoption of a national framework for diabetes care by the Government, the organisation decided it would no longer target the general population with information about diabetes, but concentrate its communications on members and health professionals.

Jackson says it is too early to say which agencies she will be working with, but the charity’s most recent “Diabetes is bloody serious” campaign was created by specialist agency Cascaid.