One reason David Parish feels so strongly about diabetes awareness is his long history of active involvement in advocacy efforts.
While David said he wasn’t an expert on the disease, he had his own journey with type 2 diabetes and by taking action – “I’ve got no worse”. And now he’s planning a special event in Waihī to raise awareness.
According to Diabetes New Zealand, pre-diabetes is also known as impaired glucose intolerance which occurs when the glucose (sugar) in blood is higher than normal, but not high enough to be called diabetes.
The 83-year-old told The Profile he was advised a long time ago that he was pre-diabetic, but he ignored it, and about a year ago – David was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. But he was motivated to make lifestyle changes to improve his situation.
“If you take the appropriate steps, you can actually fight it back.”
He met with a diabetes nurse who offered him a Diabetes New Zealand pamphlet with a brief outline of what steps to take, he said. “They’re quite explicit about what you can and can’t eat, or you should and shouldn’t eat.”
There were also guidelines for meal sizes and a recommendation to exercise, which David said he took seriously. He avoided sugar at all costs, he said. “I used to eat a lot of honey. I was a beekeeper. I love my honey.”
David said he also used to eat biscuits like they were “going out of fashion”, but “I don’t eat biscuits at all now”.
He signed up with his local gym and got set up with a 30 minute exercise regime. Over the following six months, David said he lost 10kg.
“I’m not a big person, but I had a pot tummy.”
When people would point out to David he’d lost weight, he would tell them: “yeah, I’ve done it on purpose”.
David said he got his blood sugar levels tested regularly. His blood pressure is normal and “I’m enjoying the exercise that I do”, which includes time on the rowing machine.
He heard the best way to lose weight was to go on the rowing machine because it exercised almost every muscle with no impact, he said. “If you go running, there’s an impact.”
While biking was another low impact exercise, he said it didn’t work all the muscles. “I’m trying to better my time [on the rowing machine]. So I try and go a bit harder each time.”
But David’s big motivation was knowledge. “It’s knowing that very fact that… If I manage this properly, I can live a perfectly normal life.”
David said the other side of it was that if he didn’t manage it – “the consequences are dire and the consequences of type two diabetes are terrible”.
“You know, lower limb amputation, loss of eyesight, kidney failure – the list is not good.”
David said if he had done the kinds of things he was now doing, he might never have tipped over into the type 2 diabetes range. He said he was now out of what he called a holding pattern, which meant he was only just over the threshold of being pre-diabetic and being diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes.
“I am hoping that my current lifestyle balance of regular exercise and sensible eating will keep me in that situation.”
David’s involvement with diabetes awareness goes back more than 30 years, and it’s always been in conjunction with the Lions Club, of which he is also a member.
In November, which is National Diabetes Awareness month, Waihī, Paeroa, Katikati and Omokoroa Lions Clubs will hold a special event in Waihī to help get the word out there.
Project leader David said the plan was for people in the community to join Lions in the Lap The Map for Diabetes Awareness event which would be a fun walk around the Waihī Martha Mine pit rim. “The distance is approximately five kilometres.”
People are invited to meet at the Pump House at the top of Seddon St, Waihī on November 17, anytime between 8am and 12pm and it is a gold coin donation.
Diabetes awareness was always a very important part of the Lions Club philosophy, he said, which David also shared.
DETAILS: Lap the Map event on November 17, gold coin donation, meet at the Waihī Pump House anytime between 8am and 12pm to walk the Waihī Martha Mine pit rim. To find out more information about Diabetes visit www.diabetes.org.nz.
