Back in the driver's seat- Sue's story

“I was diagnosed with prediabetes by my GP and it was a shock. And a little while later quite a way down the road and think about it, the GP pharmacist suggested the wellbeing course the Healthier You course, which I then applied for, and I got a place. What I wanted was for something to make sense, because I'd got a lot of fragmented knowledge about prediabetes, but I didn't understand how those pieces fit together, and that's what the course did for me.”

“I took it in bite sized pieces, so it didn’t overwhelm me. And so very soon all those pieces came together, and I began to understand why I got the condition in the first place. The course helped because I've got a good relationship with a coach. She was interested in me as a person, my progress, and was available to me outside the course if I needed.”

“The group dynamics were important. I wouldn't have got this far without the group. We helped each other. We listened to each other's losses and gains and formed quite a friendship. And the course content is, as I just said, that was that was incredibly, incredibly useful just to bring all those pieces together.”

“I thought I did understand healthy eating and activity, but it turns out I probably didn't, and it was a lot simpler than I thought.”

“This whole process isn't simple. You've got to put the effort in, but the course makes it simpler. And what the course needed from me was commitment. So if I’d been opting in and out this wouldn’t have worked. I needed to come into every session I possibly could.”

“I didn't want to go down the medicine route. I wanted to come out of the pre-diabetic zone. I'm actually out of the prediabetic zone. And now the challenge begins to get even greater because I have to stay outside that zone. But I've got all the tools to do it with. I've got the course booklet, I've got the knowledge, I've got the toolkit in my head, and it's up to me now what I do with that” “I can go back to eating the way I did, habits of a lifetimes. And that was the big challenge. Breaking those eating habits of a lifetimes and I won’t say it’s easy now but I know the benefits and I’m going to stick with it.” “I think looking at what I wanted form the course and what I have now is control. I’ve got the control back. I felt the control had been taken away from me when I got the diagnosis but now, I’m back in the driving seat.”