Last year, I completed the One Million Step Challenge for Diabetes UK which took place over three months. This year, I'm going to take on a bit more of challenge and walk the equivalent total length of the UK over five months. This is roughly 870 miles and works out at around 1.8 million steps.

I'm fundraising for PHC because I feel that their low-carb approach is a real gamechanger for people who want to put type 2 diabetes into remission and this option is not currently available to most people within the NHS. PHC needs funds towards long-term follow ups to The Lifestyle Club (TLC) Study. This will help to provide scientific credence to the program which will take it from helping hundreds of people to helping millions. We face a problem of policy-change inertia within the NHS and NICE guidelines due to (rightly) stringent evidence criteria.

These industry-independent studies are needed to add to the growing evidence that giving patients with type 2 diabetes the option of being supported in a low-carbohydrate approach leads to better outcomes. I wasn't given this option, but I hope future generations will not have to face the same challenges I did.

Around 10% of the NHS' annual budget is spent on type 2 diabetes and 80% of that is on long-term complications such as amputations, kidney and cardiovascular disease... the really unpleasant things that remission can help to avoid if people are given access to the right information.

Progress updates

Low-carb courses from the PHC

Some NHS practices do offer the TLC course so if you are interested it's worth asking if they have any low carbohydrate intervention options and if they say no, it's worth asking them to look into contacting PHC.

PHC also provides a free Real Food Lifestyle weight-loss course based on a low carbohydrate approach. I took part in one of these recently and found the sharing of experiences and tips very helpful. Look out for local in-person courses but you can also access the course content for free online