This day was recognised with Workers Lifestyle Group working with our partners in Western Sydney Changing Diabetes to conduct a screening day at Blacktown City Council. This corresponded with one of their staff meetings and enabled the team to screen over 25% of all the 200 attendees, starting with the Mayor, Brad Bunting.

Our collaboration between Novo Nordisk and Western Sydney Diabetes, Western Sydney Changing Diabetes, received Australia wide recognition by Novo Nordisk taking out the prestigious Prime award for the Best Public Health Initiative. The PRIME Awards recognise and celebrate excellence across 18 categories within healthcare communications and the Australian pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. The Best Public Health Initiative was hotly contested with several well known initiatives being fellow contenders, which made the win even more of an honour.

A large detection program has been conducted in Westpoint Blacktown using the staff and nurses from Western Sydney Diabetes. Situated near Woolworths, the group was able to test over 500 people during 4 days in January. Using a fingerprick test, the participant received their blood glucose results in 3 minutes. This test shows the glucose level for the last 3 months and is considered an effective way of detecting abnormal levels.

Each participant received an explanation of what their results meant and what action they should take, including seeing their GP if their results indicated them being at risk of, or having diabetes. In addition, each person received a range of information on local facilities and resources that would enable them to incorporate healthier habits into their everyday lives. This also included information on how to enroll in the 2kg Challenge. This method has been shown to be most effective in creating behaviour change. On follow up, over 65% of participants said that they had taken positive action as a result of having their blood test.