The scale of the challenge of diabetes is frightening. By 2025 there are projected to be five million people in the UK with diabetes - the vast majority with Type 2. As well as having a potentially devastating impact on the lives of these people there are also huge costs, in terms of associated care and treatment.
That's why, thanks to Diabetes UK's national charity partnership with Tesco, we will be launching the largest ever public awareness campaign on 23 September to raise awareness of the importance of having a risk assessment for Type 2 diabetes and to enable people to understand their own personal risk of developing the condition.
Once people have their risk checked, either online - www.diabetes.org.uk/riskscore - or at a pharmacy, those at high risk, will then be asked to visit their GP for a test for Type 2 diabetes and be given information about how to reduce their risk.
As well as identifying those at high risk, the campaign is expected to identify some of the estimated 850,000 people in the UK who have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes. These people will then have the chance to start managing their condition and reduce their risk of developing long-term complications.
It's a UK-wide campaign so millions of people will get to see and hear the message that Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition and that they need to be risk-assessed.
We will target the advertising campaign towards high-risk communities, such as people from African Caribbean or South Asian backgrounds or from lower socio-economic groups.
We hope the campaign will have a big impact on thousands of lives. From a health professional perspective, we expect the small increase in workload caused by people asking for risk assessments to be modest compared with the long-term positive effect of prevention and earlier diagnosis.
To find out more, visit www.diabetes.org.uk/awareness-campaign