Crumbling Pavlova

I’m just watching today’s BBC Breakfast, and again, I am upset and angry by their surface coverage of the issue around the increase of  type 2 diabetes within people under 40 living in the UK.  To be fair, the report may prove to have offered a fuller discussion, but most viewers will simply remember the headline (it was certainly enough for me…)

Now, undoubtedly, poor lifestyle and obesity can lead to the development of diabetes, but the only way we can educate future generations is to have more balanced reporting around this chronic illness.  As someone with type 1 diabetes I am exhausted by the fact that I feel bound to explain that my lifelong condition has not, in fact, been a consequence of my laziness but is an autoimmune condition that I have no control over.  Believe me, I would have done ANYTHING to have not gained the additional full-time responsibility of keeping myself healthy and alive by injecting multiple times with insulin.

Please, please, please, when covering chronic and diabilitating illnesses such as diabetes, can reporters do a little more research and provide a fuller picture that ultimately encourages more understanding, instead of using lazy headlines and images that just blame and stigmatise entire communities.

The solution isn’t clear cut, as surely availablility of cheaper, healthier food as well as access to green spaces to exercise is part of the picture for not just the UK but the world. 

For further statistics and interventions that can help to tackle the very real increase in diabetes amongst the under 40s, please explore the information provided on the Diabetes UK website.