Help For Diabetes...As Close As Your Next Door Neighbor (NAPSA)—Here’s good newsif you want to volunteer in your community, but don’t have the time for a major commitment. If you know someone with diabetes and wish that you could help, but don’t know how, the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA’s) Community Campaign for Diabetes is a simple way to make a big difference. By taking just 30 minutes and a few stamps, you can reach out to your neighbors to help fight diabetes, and maybe even initiate a new friendship or two! A Simple Way To Volunteer To get involved in the Community Campaign for Diabetes, volunteers across the country send letters to their neighbors asking them to take a simple written test to find out if they are at risk for diabetes and to make a contribution to diabetes research and public information programs. The American Diabetes Association hopes that programs such as the Community Campaign for Diabetes will help people learn more about the risk factors for diabetes andsee their doctorsif they are at risk. In addition, by donating funds, people will be helping the ADAfind a cure and improvethelives ofall diabetes A simple written test is getting high grades because it helps people find out if they are at risk for diabetes. people affected by diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that affects the body’s ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows blood sugar to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. There are 18.2 million Ameri- cans with diabetes. Each year, 1.3 million Americans are diagnosed, and the disease contributes to 210,000 deaths. If left untreated, diabetes causes serious complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness and nerve damage leading to lower limb amputations. Currently, there is no cure for diabetes. For more information, call 1-800- 232-8580 or visit www.diabetes.org/ community.
