Northern Trust celebrates success of Diabetes Prevention Programme

The Northern Health and Social Care Trust has celebrated the success of its Diabetes Prevention Programme (DPP) with a special event for participants at the Dunsilly Hotel in Antrim.

Aimed at tackling the increasing prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes, the programme has helped over 1500 people from across the Trust locality identified as being prediabetic by their GP because their blood sugar level was slightly above the normal range.

In the Northern Trust, the programme is delivered by specialist health coaches who are on hand to support and motivate participants to make healthy lifestyle changes over a nine-month period. In turns, this helps to delay, and even prevent, Type 2 diabetes.

Key facts

Leesa Houston, DPP Manager, explains more: “An estimated 6.3m people live with prediabetes in the UK. If left untreated, it can develop in to Type 2 diabetes which can lead to serious health complications. It can cause preventable sight loss in working age people and is a major contributor to kidney failure, heart attack, stroke amputation and early loss of life.

“But the good news is the illness is often preventable by adopting healthier lifestyle changes and that’s where our unique Diabetes Prevention Programme comes in.

“Instead of telling our participants what to do, health coaches support them to make their own behaviour changes around what really works for them. This has resulted in more long term benefits for our participants.

“Our results speak for themselves. Of over 1500 participants who have completed the DPP, 80% have reduced their blood sugar levels, over half of these people are no longer pre-diabetic and 71% have lost weight.”

Success stories

Over 100 participants who recently completed the programme enjoyed an opportunity to share their success stories at the event.

Sarah from Antrim said: “I would recommend this course to anyone with prediabetes as it has made me think about what I eat and how it impacts on my health. It encouraged me to change my eating habits and my way of life.”

John from Coleraine commented: “I have been struggling for years to reduce my HbA1c but today my test results are normal. I couldn’t have achieved this without the help of this programme and the constant support of my health coach. Thank you DPP, this is a super programme.”

Referral

If you have been told that you are prediabetic by your GP, you can be referred to this excellent programme which will help you to protect your future health.

For further information please email diabetespreventionni@northerntrust.hscni.net or ring 028 2563 5687.

12th June 2025