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Situated squarely in the middle of The Corso (a large public walkway between the Manly ferry terminal and Manly beach), many people were wondering why an insanely large and eye-catching bus was parked on a walkway.
They quickly found out, as the blue ribbon was cut by VIP attendees including the Mayor of Manly, the State Member of Parliament for Manly, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and of course, IDF President Martin Silink. After exchanging public speeches, the Bus was opened to the guests and public.
Over the whole day, there was never any floor space available! There were always many people, especially around lunchtime who would just walk up and ask if there was testing (unfortunately we weren’t allowed to here in Australia) and other information about diabetes. A lot of friends and family members of people with diabetes would speak to us about the person they knew, which was concerning as most of them would complain that the person with diabetes isn’t taking enough care of themselves. Many people didn’t know the most frightening fact about diabetes in Australia, and that is that over 600.000 people have type 2 diabetes and know it, but the same number have it and don’t even know!
The whole day was a huge success! Many, many people visited the Bus and we managed to educate and inform all of them about the risks and problems that diabetes poses. We also had a public commitment from the State Secretary of Health that diabetes would be included in the State Government’s long-term Health Plan for 25 years!
The Bus will now travel to Australia’s wine district, the Barossa Valley, for the JDRF Ride for Cure!
We are looking forward to seeing many people there, following the huge success at the launch in Manly!
Stay tuned!
Alex – Youth Panelist (Australia)
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