Diabetes walk is a sweet sucess

On November 7th, nearly 21,000 people took part in WALK2014, a walk to raise awareness of diabetes, in Abu Dhabi. The walk was organised by the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre (ICLDC). It is estimated that over 150 million steps were taken in total during the walk, which was at the Yaz Marina Circuit.

Last month, Felix reported that former Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had agreed to join the campaign to raise awareness of diabetes. Abdul-Jabbar took part in a walk in Al Ain around a municipality building.

Earlier at the event, a presentation on healthy living was given to 400 students from the Indian School Al Ain and Brighton College Al Ain, all aged between six and thirteen.

When talking about health and fitness in the United Arab Emirates, Abdul-Jabbar said, “People should not try for perfection – they need to try to improve.”

Abdul-Jabbar can speak from experience – his mother was diabetic, whilst he himself had a battle with leukaemia in 2009, which he has now fully recovered from. When asked about it, Abdul-Jabbar said “When you have a threat like leukaemia in your life, you have to make some changes. I’m very fortunate to be alive. I’m going to make the best of these years.

“The most important message that I want everybody to get is that diabetes is preventable.”

During a question and answer session, a pupil took the opportunity to ask Abdul-Jabbar whether he actually liked vegetables. Abdul-Jabbar replied, “I really don’t like vegetables”. He later added that his grandmother would “smack him” on the back of the head if he didn’t eat them, and he now ate them regularly.

When speaking about the visit of the Basketball star, Bashar Al Ramahi, Chief Executive of the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, explained that young people are more likely to take heed of a message on healthy living from an athlete. When the proper message goes to younger generations, “they accept it much more easily than the older generation.”