Clonmel Lions Club in Tipperary is promoting diabetes awareness in the community

The Lions Club was set up with the purpose of enabling people to join together to give time and skills to improving their communities.
Lions are committed to a number of worthy causes, one of which is diabetes awareness.
Lions Clubs Ireland have embraced Type 2 Diabetes Awareness as a signature project.
It is estimated that 340,000 people on the island of Ireland have diabetes and between 80/90% have Type 2 diabetes.
The focus of the Lions Project is creating awareness of Type 2 diabetes, as it may be delayed or prevented by changing lifestyle.

Signs and symptoms of diabetes include excessive thirst or dry mouth, frequent urination, tiredness, slow healing of wounds, blurred vision and unexplained weight loss or gain. Often there are no symptoms.
Poorly-managed diabetes can lead to serious complications including eye, kidney, heart and foot disease.
Type 2 diabetes risk factors include a family history of diabetes; people who are over 40 years of age; people who are over 25 years of age and of African or South Asian descent; those who are overweight and have a lack of exercise; a history of gestational diabetes; and high blood pressure/cholesterol.
If you have one or more risk factors it is recommended that you should get screened by your GP.

You can prevent, delay and manage your Type 2 diabetes by eating healthily, maintaining a healthy weight and waistline, taking regular physical activity, stopping smoking, having your eyes screened annually and reviewing your health regularly with your GP.
Please visit https://www.diabetes.ie/are-you-at-risk-free-diabetes-test where you will find a questionnaire to complete.
This will help you identify your risk factors.
This is a simple questionnaire that only takes a few minutes and is a valuable tool to accessing a person’s present vulnerability to Type 2 diabetes.
Clonmel Lions Club has previously promoted diabetes awareness at the annual Clonmel Show but has been unable to do so this year or last year because of the pandemic.