14/05/2026
🥰 A huge thank you to everyone who attended our Diabetes Awareness event on Tuesday evening to mark the launch of Thrive Sperrins and its diabetes prevention and early detection programme.
We had a full house for our speakers Laurence O'Kane, Chair of The Workspace Group, local GP Dr Peter Livingstone, Leesa Houston and Doreen Bolton from the Northern Health and Social Care Trust.
Thrive Sperrins is an exciting new project involving Workspace, the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, STEPS, Screen Clinical and individuals from the local community who work in health, Will Nicholson, Paddy McEldowney and Anne Donnelly. It will focus on four key health areas: Prevention of Diabetes, Brain Health, Mental Health and Access to Services.
The Diabetes prevention programme, which also involves Diabetes UK and Roche, commences in the next two weeks when the first group of patients of Draperstown GP Surgery, identified as being most at risk of developing diabetes, will be contacted by the Surgery to attend O'Kane's Pharmacy to have their blood glucose level and cholesterol measured. Additional patients will be contacted over the next 12 months. Those found to be at risk of pre-diabetes will be referred directly to the Trust's Diabetes Prevention programme.
We look forward to seeing how this exciting new project progresses over the coming months and how it improves the health of our local community.🥰
