BOLTON is recruiting its very own champions to combat the increased numbers of people with diabetes.

The latest two-day training course was held at All Souls Church in an effort to reduce the numbers of people with the condition.

The current emphasis is on recruiting volunteers from the Asian community to help raise awareness.

The pioneering initiative is being coordinated by the University of Bolton, Diabetes UK and Bolton NHS Foundations Trust and Dr Harnovdeep Bharaj, a consultant in diabetes, together with other health care professionals.

Dr Bharaj said: "Currently, there are 20,000 people who have been diagnosed with the condition and a further 33,000 people at risk and it's a huge problem.

"The idea of the champions is for ordinary people who live in the community to not only engage with those that live around them but take it forward by prevention."

Dr Bharaj, who helped organise the first recruitment drive last September, explains: "We appointed a co-ordinator for Bolton and it's aimed initially at the ethnic groups because an earlier audit had shown that there was far less take up from people of those groups.

"Awareness programmes found that it would be really good to get people involved to make them aware of the unnecessary risk people were taking with their health simply because of lifestyle and poor diet."

The volunteers are made up of people from all sorts of backgrounds and include health professionals, carers and even people with the condition.

The latest course has now boosted the ranks of the champions to more than 40.

In April, Bolton will be part of a national diabetes programme. It will help signpost people to the correct advice and treatment before the onset of the debilitating and sometimes deadly condition.

Dr Bharaj adds: One of the most important things our champions can do is to hand hold people into attending some of our prevention programmes."

One of the first champions is grandmother Ila Shah, aged 74, who has fundraised for Diabetes UK since her husband Nanubhai, aged 78, died in November 2012 after living with the disease for 20 years.

The couple moved from India to Bolton in the 1960s and worked as chartered accountants before Mr Shah's diagnosis in 1992.

Initially he was diagnosed with Type 2, which was is controlled with medication and a change of diet, but seven years before his death he became insulin dependent.

Ila said: "I think that being a champion means I can help people who don't have much of a knowledge of diabetes. I see a lot of people and the impact of diabetes. And if you have it, how you deal with it either through diet or doing regular exercise."

Indira Tailor, aged 65, who despite retiring, is using her professional knowledge as a practice nurse.

Indira said: "I thought it was a good way of using my knowledge and skills to prevent diabetes. It has worked really well and I have been involved in a number of presentations with various Asian groups including one on March 29, from 10am to 12 noon at Halliwell UCAN Centre."

She added: "If we improve somebody's lifestyle, it's going to have a big impact and probably help them to live longer. So I believe in the case of diabetes prevention is better than cure.

Sarbori Basu, aged 47, is a teaching supply assistant who says she had a vested interest in becoming a champion. Not least because members of her family and her in-laws have diabetes.

She says: "A lot of my family are suffering from Type 2 diabetes including my brother and my in-laws. Hopefully, with my help their condition and that of other people can be controlled."

Sarbori, who is a classically trained Indian dancer, knows the importance exercise can bring and is hoping to hold sessions for women.

"Since being trained up I have been attending workshops to emphasise the importance of changing lifestyles and diet and many women are quite reluctant to go to their GPs.

"The experience has been excellent and people really do appreciate our effort. I explain what diabetes is and it's nothing to be terrified of."