Silver Star for Valerie

Yesterday, Valerie was a panel member of the Silver Star Open Forum at the House of Commons, where she chaired a plenary session addressing the impact of reforms on diabetes.

Silver Star is a registered charity which campaigns to provide diabetes awareness.  They run Mobile Diabetes Units which carry out testing and promote culturally sensitive healthcare in major towns and cities across Britain.

The event was well attended, with over 150 pharmacy representatives, GPs and health professionals attending. 

Amongst others, the high-profile panel also included: The Rt Hon John Healey MP, Shadow Health Secretary; The Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Diabetes; Earl Howe, the Health Minister; The Rt Hon Sptephen Dorrell MP, Chair of the Health Select Committee; and Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and author of Diabetes for Dummies.

Diabetes is a condition where the amount of glucose in the blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly.  Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body either cannot produce enough insulin or when the insulin that it does produce does not work properly.  It is often linked with being overweight.

There are currently over 2.8 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and it is estimated that in addition to this figure over a million people have Type 2 Diabetes but do not know it yet.

For more information, please visit http://www.silverstaruk.org/.