THE number of people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes is on the increase and as an MP I am often approached by charities and campaigning organisations to help raise the awareness that people can have Type 2 diabetes without knowing it.

Diabetes is a condition where people have too much glucose in the blood. The charity Diabetes UK explains that people with Type 2 diabetes either do not produce enough insulin themselves, or the insulin that their bodies produce does not work properly.

It really is important that individuals should be aware of the risk because untreated diabetes can lead to very serious complications, including blindness, amputation, strokes or kidney failure.

The risk factors for the disease include being over 40 (or over 25 for people from a South Asian background), being overweight or having a close family member with diabetes.

80 per cent of cases of Type 2 diabetes can be delayed or prevented through healthy lifestyle changes. It is estimated that there are 7 million people in the UK at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. You can check your risk by visiting this website: www.diabetes.org.uk/riskscore. Your GP can advise you in person and some pharmacies also provide information and advice.

Other charities, such as Silver Star (www.silverstaruk.org) offer testing as well as raising awareness by running Mobile Diabetes Units which promote culturally sensitive healthcare in major towns and cities throughout the country.

We have about 3 million people with Type 2 diabetes, but the estimates of the numbers who have it but haven’t yet been diagnosed range from 850,000 to 1 million. So I think it is well worth getting checked out. When the Silver Star charity visited Parliament last year, they discovered that an MP who came along for testing during the session actually had diabetes without being aware of it.

So, if you think that you are at risk, do get yourself tested .