I’m running the London Landmarks Half Marathon on 3rd April 2022 for Diabetes UK and for a world where diabetes can do no harm.

I’m not a runner. I’m a plodder who looks like a cross between an elephant and a flailing octopus as I shuffle around the streets and parks near home trying to convince myself that I AM A RUNNER. My body is yet to be convinced as it is as injury prone as I’d expect a 50-something overweight and unfit body to be but I’m determined to train and I’m determined to run this race for Diabetes U.K. because I am diabetic.

I was diagnosed at the start of 2020 when the GP told me I’d been diabetic for a number of years but they’d just forgotten to let me know. 

The first thing I did was join the Diabetes U.K. forum on their website and post that I was angry, confused, overwhelmed. 

What I was met with was nothing other than warmth, compassion, understanding and solid advice about how to control or even reverse my diabetes. I’ve not managed to reverse it but it does seem to be under control. Plenty of others on the forum aren’t so lucky and my eyes have been opened to the myriad of diabetes related conditions which can develop over time. They’re horrid. Amputations, blindness, nerve damage so severe that walking is nigh on impossible. 

Diabetes still isn’t entirely understood. Research is needed into the various types and subtypes to determine likely cause and best treatments and care..

Please sponsor me so that research can continue, so that campaigning can be heard, so that we deepen our understanding of this pernicious disease and so that we live in a world where diabetes can do no harm.

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