The El Wak sports stadium will on the 16th of February, 2019 host hundreds of people with diabetes and other related sicknesses when Frankel Foundation for Diabetics, an NGO in the U.S.A rolls out its first health walk and health screening for patients living with diabetes.
The event which is put together by the foundation will begin with a health walk where participants will walk from a set-out point to the El Wak sports stadium where various health-screening activities will go on including thorough checks on diabetes and other related sicknesses. There will be free screening, nutritional education, dental, eye and foot examinations.
The health walk will start from El Wak Sports station at 6 am through to some various selected points and end at El Wak where the health screening will begin. It will later be followed by a dinner dance in the evening of the same day which will have some invited guest to grace the occasion. Frankel Foundation for Diabetics will also use the evening of the dinner dance to officially launch the foundation in Ghana and detail what it seeks to achieve, its vision and coming activities for the foundation in Ghana.
There will also be a symposium right after the official launch which will see the founder and the entire team from Frankel Foundation for Diabetics visit some selected clinics and hospitals including the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Saint Gregory Hospital in Gomoa East, Korle- Bu diabetic center in Accra.
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A very passionate nurse in the U.S.A, Mrs. Lydia Agyen Frimpong who is also a diabetic owns the foundation which has been in existence for a year now. Growing up, she was keen about healthy living and never imagined herself in that situation until she was diagnosed diabetic at the age of 24. As broken as she was, she decided never to bother so much about her health again until she realized her situation was getting worse by the day. With her children in sight every day with somewhat deteriorating condition, she settled on the best option which was to take very good care of her health if she wants to live to see her children grow as a mother.
Since then, she has been very passionate about preaching about diabetes, offering a helping hand to diabetic patients, speaking on various platforms about the disease. A gesture that eventually gave birth to the foundation which has been doing so well in the U.S.A and has finally decided to launch here in Ghana too. Speaking to her on what motivated the foundation, she said her 15-year-old son and mum who are both diabetic were the reason she embarked on this project which will annually put together such activities to educate and create awareness about diabetes.
On why the launch is scheduled to take place in February which happens to be the month of love, she explained that, “diabetes go hand in hand with hypertension and hypertension deals with the heart so if you love someone with your heart then this is the time to show that person that special love and that’s why myself and the team at Frankel have decided to do it this month’’.
Diabetes is a number of diseases that involve problems with the hormone insulin. Normally, the pancreas (an organ behind the stomach) releases insulin to help your body store and use the sugar and fat from the food you eat. Diabetes can occur when the pancreas produces very little or no insulin, or when the body does not respond appropriately to insulin. As yet, there is no cure. People with diabetes need to manage their disease to stay healthy. Ghana in 2000 recorded 302,000 emergencies and is expected to record 851,000 by 2030.