S.D.A. on Membership Drive

(ZIZ News)– The St. Kitts Diabetes Association [SDA] is on a drive to increase its membership by having diabetics register with the association.

The group’s P.R.O., Dr. Reginald O’loughlin, hopes that the outreach activities for World Diabetes Day will attract members.

“Our executive is relatively new so we’re promoting the idea of becoming a member by registering and then you can access all of the things that we’re trying to make available to those members. We’re trying to ensure that every diabetic in St. Kitts would have a glucometer, that is an instrument to test your blood sugar,” Dr. O’loughlin explained adding that there are many benefits to being a registered member with the SDA.

He said business places have partnered with the group to offer reduced prices for certain products.

“We recognise that it is impossible to control Diabetes without being able to test and test on a regular and frequent basis and these do cost considerable sums and that is one of the complaints that we have so we’re hoping that through the Diabetes Association, and us partnering and making the necessary links with entities and agencies, we’ll be able to make that difficulty something of the past by being able to ensure that all diabetics either have their own glucometers or have ready access to glucometer testing.”

Meantime, P.R.O. O’loughlin revealed that there is an alarming number of diabetic patients on the island, adding that several others are suffering from Diabetes but are not registered members of any of the island’s health centers.

“We talking about at least 1100 diabetics registered in the health centers in St. Kitts. If they all become members of course that would be so good. The more the merrier. We all know that once the numbers are greater, we have a greater voice and we can access a variety of things when we are in greater numbers. Not all diabetics attend health centers so the numbers can very well be approaching 2000 diabetics in St. Kitts,” he said.