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Doing battle with diabetes
Diabetes sufferer goes on air for 24 hours straight
by Richard Gleeson
NNSL (Dec 01/97) - It is a disease that is touching more and more Northerners each year, with no slow down in sight. Two years ago, Roy Dahl became one of the growing number of people to discover they are diabetic. "It was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat," said Dahl, describing the impact of being told he had the disease. "I suppose I always knew I was at risk, but I never thought about it until it actually happened." This week Dahl will be combating one of the main symptoms of the disease, fatigue, in an attempt to raise awareness of the disease and funding to find a cure. From 3 p.m., Dec. 5, until the same time the next day, Dahl will be manning a CKLB microphone for the station's first 24-hour radioathon, entitled "A Gift for Diabetes." It will be a busy stretch for Dahl. A day after the radioathon he's slated to write his law school admission exams. Aboriginal people are particularly susceptible to the disease. Dahl said a report he read indicates 50 per cent of the aboriginal population of Canada will have it by the turn of the century. "I guarantee you if we were to say half the Caucasian population would have diabetes by the year 2000 there would be a huge outcry," said Dahl. One thing that diminishes the volume of the present outcry is that, by a recent Canadian Diabetes Association count, approximately 750,000 Canadians who suffer from the disease do not know they have it. It's a staggering number with staggering health-care costs attached. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in adults. Men with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack than those without the disease. Female sufferers are three-four times more likely to suffer heart attacks. Diabetes is also the leading cause, apart from traumatic injuries, of amputation. |