Day 29 International Diabetes Awareness Month: as ever new stats are released each year about now.

The seventh and latest “Diabetes Atlas” will be released for download by the International Diabetes Federation on Tuesday 1st December.

Again this year they will make depressing reading – the figures are continuing to look worse.

I have a preview to share with you:

• 415 million people are now diagnosed with diabetes
• That’s 1 in 11 adults now living with diabetes
• By 2040, it is predicted the number of cases will rise to 642 million
• That will be 10% of the adult population
• Deaths are now running at 5 million a year
• One person dies from diabetes every six seconds.
• 1 in 7 births is affected by gestational diabetes

It’s crucial we don’t bury our heads in the sand and pretend these figures don’t matter or will go away if we simply ignore them.

Let’s harness our feelings about them to generate a motivation to turn them around. What about if next year we can say there’s an improvement?

It’s only impossible if we collectively decide it’s impossible! We will not give up!