Sarah McCarthy-Fry, MP for Portsmouth North, is backing the charity's Get Serious campaign, which aims to get as many people as possible to sign up and show their commitment by doing something about diabetes, whether it be making healthy lifestyle ch
anges, organising a fundraising event, campaigning or volunteering.
If left untreated or not managed effectively, diabetes can lead to complications such as heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and amputation.
Type 2 diabetes can go undetected for 10 years or more, which means around half the people affected have complications by the time they are diagnosed.
Mrs McCarthy-Fry said: 'There are 3,875 people diagnosed with diabetes in Portsmouth North. I've signed up to the Get Serious campaign to raise awareness of the condition among my constituents and to highlight the need for people to take their health seriously.'
The charity is launching the Get Serious campaign via a dedicated Get Serious section of the Diabetes UK website, across online communities and its members' magazine, Balance.
People will be able to monitor the campaign's progress, make pledges and upload photos and videos via the Diabetes UK pages on YouTube and Flickr.
» Visit
diabetes.org.uk/GetSerious>> Vote in our latest web poll.