No doubt you are aware that we relaunched the AGSD-UK website early in 2019. You may not have quite registered some of our new features.
Maps of GSD patients
From the AGSD-UK database of contacts and patients we can generate location maps for each of the GSDs. These are now regularly updated and published on the website. This makes it much easier for people to benefit from peer support from others affected by the same GSD. The marker pins are anonymous, but if you wish you can ask for your name and some contact information, such as an email address, to be published on your pin. Privacy is paramount of course, but if you identify a pin near to you and would like to contact that person, but no contact details are available, you can ask to have your details passed on to that person via the AGSD-UK office or your GSD coordinator.
Go to the introduction to the maps.
Regular news stories
In the past our main channel for news has been via Glisten magazine. That meant that most stories were long out of date before the next issue. Now we have a news section on the homepage with introductory snippets on each story, linking to their full story. We are now able to publish short-notice items, and with no printing cost we can now include not just our own news but also other items relevant to GSD or our membership. Recently we are finding that we have one or two news stories every week, so keep coming back to the homepage to see if there is something of interest to you.
Go to the news section of the home page.
Read our publications on line
We are now making all our publications available for browsing online. We are gradually adding all our publications and hope to have that finished in the next few months. This is a major resource not just for our members but for affected people around the world. The software we are using allows the user to flick through the pages, or navigate directly to a page number, and to search the text of the publication.
Try viewing the leaflet “Meet the Pompe Support Team”.
Personal GSD stories
A major new feature is the publishing of personal stories of people affected by GSD. These are invaluable to people who are newly diagnosed. We are trying to build a library of personal stories covering all of the GSDs. The latest stories appear in a scrolling list on the homepage, and there is a selected list for each GSD on its introductory page. Please consider contributing your story and read the relevant notes on the contributors page.
Responsive design for web site
With every page that we add we are very careful to ensure that the page works well on desktop, tablet (landscape and portrait) and smartphone formats. Much of this is handled by the software we use, but we need to follow the appropriate approach to the page layouts in order to get the best out of the system. Users are accessing the web site in the following approximate proportions: desktops 60%, tablets 10% and smartphones 30%. There is a continuing trend to increasing access from smartphones. If you notice any hiccups in any format, please do message the webmaster.