It’s time for South Africa’s biggest diabetes awareness campaign!
We want the whole of South Africa to wear blue on World Diabetes Day, Thursday 14th November 2024. Why? So that every South African will know the 5 symptoms of diabetes.
Early diagnosis: longer life
Diabetes is not a lethal condition. Yet it kills more women than anything else in South Africa, and is the second leading cause of death in men. Why? Well, one of the reasons is because people are diagnosed too late – when the condition is already presenting with severe long-term complications (blindness, amputation, kidney failure, heart disease). An early diagnosis can lead to a longer, healthier life with diabetes.
How can wearing blue help?
One day, every South African will wake up on the 14th November and wear something blue. In 2024, imagine half the country wakes up and wears something blue, and can tell the other half that it’s because of diabetes – and by the way, do you know the 5 symptoms of diabetes?
This is how awareness begins.
We need all South Africans to know the 5 symptoms of diabetes as well as they know the symptoms of a cold. That’s our goal here.
The 5 Symptoms Challenges
In 2023, we launched the 5 Symptoms Schools Challenge: we invited schools across SA to post a photo or video sharing the 5 symptoms of diabetes in the most innovative way. The most innovative entry won a colour printer and ink for a year.
This year, we’re issuing the same challenge to schools, but adding in a 5 Symptoms Friends Challenge, and a 5 Symptoms Family Challenge. Share the 5 symptoms of diabetes in the most innovative way and you and your friends could win a R2000 meal voucher, while you and your family could win a R2000 grocery voucher. Let’s flood social media with the 5 symptoms of diabetes in the most innovative ways!
Local stories of lived experience
While the two voices for this campaign are Bridget McNulty and Siyabonga Zuma, both living with Type 1 diabetes, we want to ensure that each province has a lived experience representative. That’s why we’ve got nine #WearBlueforDiabetes champions – one per province – to share their local story of life with diabetes, and how important it is to wear blue and know the 5 symptoms on Thursday 14th November.
#BlueBalloonChallenge meets the 5 symptoms
The #BlueBalloonChallenge is an initiative by Medtronic Global that encourages people without diabetes to go about their daily lives while keeping a blue balloon in the air at all times (not a helium balloon!) It helps to make the invisible workload of diabetes more visible.
This year we’re combining the #BlueBalloonChallenge with the 5 symptoms by printing blue balloons with the 5 symptoms of diabetes.
Wearing blue is easy, diabetes is not
Whether it’s your team at work, or your local school, your group of friends or just your family, wearing blue is not a difficult thing to do. We all have something blue in our wardrobes. But the impact of wearing blue in support of people with diabetes is immense. Diabetes is a 24/7/365 chronic condition. It can feel very lonely – even when you’re part of a community like Sweet Life. Seeing people unaffected by diabetes visibly showing support makes a huge difference.
Find out more at www.sweetlife.org.za/WearBlueforDiabetes and please help us turn SA blue!
For media requests and interviews with Bridget and Siyabonga, please contact:
Kelly Burke: kelly@fluxcom.co.za | 082 498 2797
For more information about diabetes: www.sweetlife.org.za
