A healthy lifestyle roadshow will visit Bradford next week to help people find out more about diabetes and discover if they are at risk of developing the disease.

Diabetes UK’s Healthy Lifestyle Roadshow will visit Centenary Square in Bradford on Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am to 5pm as part of the charity’s Diabetes Week activities.

The aim is to identify some of the estimated 7,400 people in the Bradford and Airedale area who have Type 2 diabetes but are not aware they do.

If the condition is not diagnosed early enough or left untreated, it can lead to complications like stroke, heart disease, kidney failure and blindness.

Linda Wood, Northern and Yorkshire Regional Manager for Diabetes UK said: “It’s frightening that there are more than 7,400 people in the Bradford and Airedale area alone that have Type 2 diabetes but have no idea they do.”

Risk factors for Type 2 diabetes include being overweight, having a large waist, being aged over 40 (or over 25 in black and South Asian people) and having a close relative with diabetes.

Symptoms include urinating more often and especially at night, increased thirst, extreme tiredness, unexplained weight loss, genital itching or regular episodes of thrush, slow healing of cuts and wounds and blurred vision.

Diabetes UK staff will offer free risk assessment tests which predict a person’s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in the next ten years. If this risk is moderate to high, people will be referred to their GP. People unable to attend the roadshow can take the Diabetes UK risk score test at diabetes.org.uk/roadshow/riskscore1.

  • Read the full story Thursday’s T&A