Mrs H is a Moroccan woman in her 40s and had hypothyroidism, depression and Type 2 Diabetes. She had also recently been suffering from Long Covid.
Mrs H referred herself to our Health & Wellbeing one to one team in early 2021. She was looking for help to lose weight and increase her physical activity, to help her to manage her health conditions. She signed up for one to one virtual sessions with one of our Health and Wellbeing workers, for support around making positive changes to her lifestyle.
Mrs H told us that she had contracted Covid 19 in January 2021, and that since contracting the virus she had experienced Long Covid symptoms, which made her Diabetes uncontrolled. Normally, we ask peope to fill in a food diary, but thanks to the virtual sessions, Mrs H was able to simply send in screenshots of her daily meal intake. This helped us to understand what her portion sizes looked like and advise her accordingly.
Over time, with the support of the Health & Wellbeing worker, Mrs H managed to lose some weight. We have worked on reducing her carbohydrates, which then helped her move towards a healthier lifestyle.
Mrs H has done amazingly to control her Diabetes as well as losing more weight, and that has made people notice a change in her appearance. The compliments received from others in regards to losing weight has made a positive change to her mindset, which in turn has improved her blood glucose levels
We were able to email Mrs H plenty of information, from the first moment she contacted us for help, including:
- Eat well guide
- Portion size guidance
- Carbohydrates awareness
- Food labelling
- Diabetes complication information
- Long Covid information ( managing Long Covid symptoms)
We also went through these on her virtual support sessions as a reminder and to make sure they were all understood.
Thanks to our links with Sheffield Hallam University’s AWRC Long Covid Research Team, we were able to signpost Mrs H to support available for her Long Covid symptoms. We were also able to signpost her to our cycling sessions, to help her with getting more active.
As a result of her support from Darnall Well Being, Mrs H says that she has experienced the following improvements:
- Feeling very happy and connected.
- Improved her health and made is aware of diabetes complications .
- Overall wellbeing has improved.
- More confident with her appearance.
- Feels she has now managed to control her Diabetes, thanks to the guidelines provided.
- Taking more exercise, such as walking, more frequently
Mrs H is over the moon about her achievements and is looking forward to losing more weight. She is committed to maintaining her new lifestyle and developing it further. She also appreciates the time and support provided from the start and feels that the changes made will only make her stronger. Mrs H is also very thankful to AWRC from their continued support.
The virtual sessions made me feel that the support is accessible even during this pandemic. The sessions are very flexible which gave me a lot of encouragement to look after myself and to become even healthier. The Health Trainer made me think positively about myself which has reflected on my mood and self-esteem.
Mrs H, after several one to one Diabetes support sessions