Diabetes

Diabetes is a condition in which the amount of glucose in the blood is too high, because the body is no longer able to use it properly. It can affect anyone at anytime. We do not know what causes diabetes and there is no cure. People with diabetes are at risk of developing complications including blindness, amputation, kidney failure, heart disease and stroke.
Diabetes affects approximately 3% of the population, that’s 1.4 million people in the U.K. and is on the increase, the incidence set to double by 2010. Someone is diagnosed with diabetes every 5 minutes – that’s 100,000 people each year. Diabetes is estimated to cost 5% of the NHS budget – that’s £4,000 per minute!
Diabetes UK is a charity helping people with diabetes and supporting diabetes research. The organisation has over 185,000 members and over 450 local voluntary groups across the U.K. We spend over £4.5 million a year on diabetes research and are one of the biggest funders of diabetes research in the U.K.
The Chippenham and District Voluntary Group of Diabetes UK has been in existence since October 1993 and has a catchment area including, Chippenham, Corsham, Calne and Malmesbury.