SPREADING THE WORD

A fortuitous meeting on an airplane of Joshua McCarthy, who works for Fonterra, and a Diabetes NZ staffer has opened doors in his workplace for diabetes education.

Joshua McCarthy was en route from Hamilton to Balclutha, on the first leg of the journey, when he found himself in conversation with a passenger in the next seat. Both of them would usually keep to themselves on a flight, but the pair started up a conversation and it wasn’t long before they found they had something in common.

Josh says, ‘We got talking. I never talk on the plane, and she said she never talks. She was friendly. She told me what she did as a job, and I started opening up to her about my journey.’

He found he was talking to Cara Thomas, Diabetes NZ’s Head of Community Services.

Eleven years before starting at Fonterra, Joshua felt something wasn’t right with his health. Due to drinking a lot of water, he was getting up a lot in the night and the broken sleep was making him very tired. Then one morning he woke to find he had blurry vision. ‘I Dr Googled myself, which said I’m either going to die, or I need to check my blood glucose levels.’

Joshua had the advantage of having a medical centre within his prior workplace, so the nurse there gave him the finger prick. It took two tests to get a reading because the first one didn’t register. (Little did he know that he was off the scale.) Thinking it was an error, they waited half an hour until testing again. ‘It came up bang on 30,’ says Josh. The nurse called an ambulance, and off he went to the hospital.

‘That was my first introduction to what was going to be my next journey.’

I know what to do. It’s just very difficult to put it into practice. I need to do subtle changes in order for it to be my new lifestyle as opposed to change my lifestyle. I have a 16-year-old daughter and a loving wife as well, so it’s not just me in the picture.

STEP CHANGE

There was a lot happening in Joshua’s life when he got diagnosed, with moving towns being one of them. ‘I signed up to the medical centre here, and that’s where I met my very growly nurse who I absolutely love. Shelley Milne was my diabetes nurse, and she sat me down in the chair and told me exactly what I needed to hear.’

“You’ve got no option now. You follow this, or it’s going to shorten your life.”

These words made Joshua prick up his ears, jump on treadmill, start losing some weight, and begin changing his diet. ‘When I first got diagnosed, I went on this big rampage of exercising every day and eating rabbit food. I lost 28kg in two months.’ But this change was too dramatic and unsustainable. Joshua and his family were also living out of a hotel for a length of time while their house was being built. This meant no proper access to a kitchen, so his hard work fell over. He regained the lost weight. Eleven years later, Josh has gradually brought changes into his lifestyle, ones that will be more permanent than his treadmill and rabbit food days. ‘I’ve been doing a bit more, eating a bit better,’ he shares but also freely admits that he is no poster child. ‘I don’t look after myself as well as I should.’

But, looking after oneself requires some predictability on the work front as well as at home.

Joshua’s role with Fonterra involves a busy work schedule where he’s frequently away from home. His job requires him to regularly visit the five sites in the South Island. ‘It’s a pretty busy lifestyle, travelling all over New Zealand within Fonterra, helping out in the maintenance area. Not the best environment for eating.’

But of course, due to Josh’s career and his need to travel, a connection was made, which opened doors to conversations that wouldn’t have otherwise happened.

Following the interaction with Joshua, Cara Thomas accompanied Otago-based staff member Noeline Wedlock to the Fonterra site in Gore. Josh started the session by bravely sharing his own story to the audience of around 80 South Island site leaders. With a personal connection made, the Diabetes NZ team then delivered diabetes workplace education to Josh’s colleagues. The energy and interest was evident, with engagement on the day and questions forthcoming.

Josh says support from his work has been amazing. ‘I’ve had some amazing interactions with people coming up to me and thanking me for sharing the story. It’s something they weren’t really familiar with, but some have since gone and got a diabetes check-up for their HbA1c. Some have been diagnosed with prediabetes, so they’ve caught it early. So they’re going through that kind of journey themselves now, changing their diet and behaviour.’

WALKING TO WORK

A year ago, Joshua changed roles and locations within Fonterra and is now based in an office in the town centre. He now has the opportunity to walk to work. ‘I use the stairs. I don’t use cars. I don’t jump in a car first thing in the morning, then sit at my desk for the whole eight hours and go home again. I can actually walk everywhere around town, so I’ve kind of changed that kind of behaviour.’

This change in lifestyle has brought his HbA1c down to 66, from the 127 it was when first diagnosed. ‘The doctor still has it on his wall as a graph. He couldn’t believe I was still walking around, functioning.’

Joshua hopes to keep spreading the word at work. ‘It’s one of those diseases that’s not really talked about. It’s almost frowned upon because type 2 is almost perceived as self-afflicted. “You did it to yourself because you didn’t look after yourself, and you didn’t exercise, and you ate all the wrong foods,” and I get that, I really do. Now, I would love to be that educating person to change someone’s health status, and catch them at prediabetes so they don’t have to do what I have to do.

‘My pancreas is dead-dead. When it reached 127, it probably was never going to come back. Insulin is me forever and I’ve come to grips with that now.’

WORKPLACE EDUCATION BY DIABETES NZ

Diabetes NZ offers workplace education and HbA1c testing. If you or your workplace are interested in more information, please visit www.diabetes.org.nz/workplace-wellnessprogramme?rq=workplace%20education or email info@diabetes.org.nz.