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The first time I saw the bus, I thought it was a lot bigger than it looked in any of the pictures I’d seen. It was really crisp and clean-looking too. No clutter inside at all! I also met the driver when I saw the bus. He’s from Denmark, but he’s driven through Canada before.
Once the bus was set up at our first stop, Vancouver, on our first day, people could start coming in to visit the bus. We greeted people who came in, and also waited for the media to arrive so we could start our official opening ceremony to launch the tour.
When the press conference started at 11.00 am, the President of Novo Nordisk Canada, Vince Lamanna, spoke first, and then it was my turn. I was pretty nervous, but I think I did alright, and managed not to say “umm” too much. We also had a diabetes nurse educator talk about her experience with diabetes right here in Vancouver.
For the rest of the first day we talked to the people who came to the bus, and walked around Kitsilano Beach, the place where the bus was parked, inviting people to come inside and look at the displays.
Most people who visited the bus had or knew people who have type 2 diabetes. There were also a lot of people with pre-diabetes. Most of those people didn’t know that they could avoid developing diabetes if they ate properly, and did some exercise. Of the people who had diabetes, some were very well-controlled, and had no trouble getting the proper resources, but others weren’t as well-controlled. The latter were the people who needed more resources such as more time with doctors and nurses to learn how to care for them and why it’s important, or more coverage to pay for their supplies.
I hope that the Vancouver team and I gave those people some good information, and I hope that the signatures we’ll collect over this tour will convince key leaders to take action against diabetes.
An interesting thing that a visitor said in Vancouver has really stuck out in my mind. This woman had type 2 diabetes, and she said, “My doctor keeps telling me what I can’t do [because of my diabetes], but I want to know what I can do.” She’s probably not the only person who feels that way, and I thought it was an important statement.
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