48-hour endurance cycle to tackle diabetes

As endurance cyclists prepare to hit the road for 48 hours this week‚ they want to screen hundreds of people for diabetes as part of their mission.

Organisers hope that awareness created by the ride will result in more South Africans being tested for diabetes during this year's Novo Nordisk Cycle 4 Diabetes Relay.

Four teams of four cyclists - each affected by diabetes in some way or another - will participate in the relay.

Novo Nordisk general manager Dr Tim Kedijang said the number of people diagnosed with diabetes during the gruelling 48-hour marathon increases every year.

"We expect the same this year. Firstly‚ we have been reaching more people. But we also know that the diabetes pandemic is doubling up every year. An estimated four to five million in South Africa are living with diabetes. Fifty percent of them are not even aware that they have diabetes‚" Kedijang said.

Last year‚ eight percent of the 2‚752 people who were screened at activation centres along the route tested positive for diabetes.

"This year we are going to KwaZulu-Natal for the mere fact that it is the province with the highest prevalence of diabetes‚" Kedijang said.

Cyclists will take to the road from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg on Thursday to raise awareness around the country's second biggest killer after tuberculosis.

"There is not enough information about diabetes out there. Most of the time people misunderstand it and belittle it. We hear people say that they got a bit of sugar because they don't feel physically ill until complications develop‚" Kedijang said.

Complications include blindness‚ heart disease‚ strokes‚ kidney failure and amputations.

"Complications can be prevented. That's why we actually want people to get tested and treated early so that with the lifestyle changes and treatment they can prevent complications‚" Kedijang said.

Dr Jacques van Staden‚ a George-based general practitioner who founded the relay‚ said this year's event was to make people aware that the pre-diabetic stage of type 2 diabetes can often be reversed.

"There are many people living their lives in a pre-diabetic stage‚ going through their daily routines‚ not knowing their bodies are shutting down due to this killer disease. Part of 2017's Novo Nordisk C4D relay is to make people aware that the pre-diabetic stage of type 2 can often be reversed by making everyday lifestyle changes‚ and that diagnosis is the first step towards this."  -TimesLIVE