
Diabetes Connect. Speak to your GP or phone 5358 7400 and ask for Intake.
This article first appeared in The Weekly Advertiser on November 14th 2024.
Stawell resident Corey Fox’s life transformation in the past year was, by his own admission, driven by a deep-seated fear.
Mr Fox has lived with type-two diabetes for about 20 years, but said he had not always managed the condition well. “For a long time, I had very poor control of my diabetes, wouldn’t take my diabetes medication and had very poor health,” he said.
“I developed a generous and healthy fear of death.”
It was that fear that drove Mr Fox to make changes.
After weighing as much as 164 kilograms at one point, he recently tipped the scales at 113kgs. “That weight loss has taken a few years of patient effort and my diabetes control is as good as it has ever been,” he said.
Mr Fox attributed the turnaround to support from Grampians Community Health’s Diabetes Connect program and his personal trainer, along with his willingness to buy into the support. “I wasn’t living a good life, with a lot of self-loathing, health challenges and I didn’t take diabetes seriously,” he said.
“I made a decision a couple of years ago that enough was enough. I decided to get fit, lose some weight and joined the gym, got myself a personal trainer, and connected with Sue Fontana at Diabetes Connect and started taking that seriously.”
Mr Fox said he encountered Diabetes Connect at a perfect time. “I had been training for a while but this year I decided to get serious about it and really committed to the Diabetes Connect program,” he said. “It’s not just ‘this is your condition and this is the treatment’ – it’s about educating me and that gives you a bigger buy-in.
“You’re learning with the goal of being able to manage it better.”
Through the program, Mr Fox received access to new 24-hour sensor management control options instead of using finger pricks to monitor his blood sugar. He said he felt like a new man after previously being hospitalised for diabetes-related medical issues, and his family and friends had also noticed his improvement.
“I’m at that point where people who haven’t seen me for a while are making nice comments,” he said. “That positive feedback really helps, but you can have people telling you what to do until the cows come home, you’ve still got to have some personal accountability and buy into it and actually do it.”
At age 48, Mr Fox said he was now considering becoming a football umpire in 2025.
Diabetes Connect is a free program supporting people living with type-two diabetes to manage their health and wellbeing.
The program offers care-co-ordinating assistance to determine what supports and services patients might need to manage their health and wellbeing, reduce avoidable disease progression and avoid hospitalisation.
People can find out more about the Diabetes Connect program by visiting www.health.vic.gov.au/integrated-care/diabetes-connect or the Grampians Community Health website at gch.org.au.