One man in five dies before the age of 65.
TOGETHER we can change that.

What's your diabetes risk?

06/04/16 . Partners

What's your risk of type 2 diabetes?

For World Health Day (Thursday, April 7), Diabetes UK is calling on men of all ages to find out their risk of Type 2 diabetes.

It's easy to do online and takes just a few minutes – but currently women are 38% more likely to use the Diabetes UK Know Your Risk online tool than men even though men are at greater risk of Type 2 diabetes. 

Go online and check your risk now 

The Hammers - West Ham United – are joining forces with the charity to hammer home the message: use the online tool It's a simple questionnaire developed by Diabetes UK, the University of Leicester and the University Hospital of Leicester NHS Trust that will pin down your risk precisely and tell you what to do about it.

West Ham coach Tony Carr MBE, who is pictured above between captain Mark Noble and striker Andy Carroll was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes 11 years ago and is keen to raise awareness.

He says: 'I had been losing weight and feeling terrible. I didn’t have a clue what diabetes was. Since then, I’ve really worked hard to take care of myself, eat well and stay active. To hear that Diabetes UK has already had one million visits to its Know Your Risk of Type 2 diabetes tool is really encouraging. I can’t recommend enough that people go online and check their own risk.'

Helen Dickens, Head of Prevention at Diabetes UK, said: 'A staggering 11.9 million people in the UK are now at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. However the good news is that when an individual knows they are at increased risk they hold the power to turn this around by making relatively simple lifestyle changes.'

 

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

Registered with the Fundraising Regulator

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  • The Men's Health Forum
  • 82 Tanner Street
  • London, SE1 3GN

Charity registered in England and Wales (no. 1087375). Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 4142349).