Walking Away From Diabetes

Southwark’s Walking Away From Diabetes service has been designed to help reduce your chance of getting type 2 diabetes.

What Does the Walking Away From Diabetes Programme Involve?

  • This 3-hour workshop that take place locally in small group settings and examines:
    • Reducing blood sugar levels and taking steps to reduce Type 2 diabetes
    • Understanding more about type 2 diabetes, it’s effects on your body and wellbeing
    • What high blood glucose levels means long term and the health issues associated with Type 2 diabetes
    • How to reduce the risk of contracting type 2 diabetes through increasing physical activity and healthy eating planning
  • Three months after the program, we offer a follow up telephone evaluation to check progress
  • Another telephone evaluation is provided three months later to check everything is still on track

You are more than welcome to bring a family member/friend or carer to accompany you.

The programme is delivered by two fully qualified practitioners.

Who can receive support?

  • Aged 18 and over
  • Identified as pre-diabetic
  • Have an HbA1c result of between 6.0 and 6.4% (42-47mmol/mol)
  • Registered at a GP practice within the borough

What do I do now?

Call 0333 005 0159

Or contact us using this form.

My name is Emy, I am 57 years young and like so many of you, I have an uninvited guest on my journey- pre- diabetes!!!
And like so many of you I have other guests who have decided to join the party, osteoarthritis, low blood pressure, fatigue and just for good measure a brain tumour!
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you any of this so you feel sorry for me, you are way too busy partying with guests of your own.

My take on my uninvited guests is, I didn’t invite them, I’m not going to do anything to make them more comfortable and I’m definitely not going to do anything that gives them more power!!
Like all of you reading this, I’m in it for the long run, so I drew up a battle plan and as such have gathered some weapons:
– Humour, I’ve learnt to laugh at myself, and I’ve learnt to laugh even harder when my uninvited guests embarrasses me.
– I’ve learnt to cry when I need to, as I’ve found tears are cleansing.
– I’ve learnt that honestly with myself and when appropriate, shared with others, keeps my mental health on the right side of okay.
– I’ve learnt that self-control, discipline and knowledge gained from the Walking Away from Diabetes programme is a passport to staying healthy.
– I’ve also learnt, that exercise although exhausting and painful will keep me from being bed-bound.


Let’s be honest, high sugar, high fat and starchy foods are pleasure inducing, especially during lockdown!
And doesn’t our waistline tell us just that!
So I am very grateful for learning about my risk of Type 2 Diabetes when I did and for all the information I gained at the Walking Away from Diabetes programme. If not for the knowledge I gained, I would without a doubt have joined the very long list of people who have sadly developed Type 2 Diabetes.

I have also found the follow up phone calls incredibly useful because it’s kept Type 2 Diabetes at the forefront of my mind, a little voice in my head that comes to the fridge and food cupboards with me, especially in the evening.
And during the lockdown I have also started remote exercise classes with Everyone Health as a direct result of support from the team.

We are definitely in this battle against Type 2 Diabetes together, so I want to end by saying, stay strong, keep smiling, stay active and don’t visit the fridge and food cupboard too often and when you do, I hope you hear the same voice I hear that reminds me to make the right choices.