Generous donation helps diagnose woman living with type 1 diabetes undetected for four years

A life-changing donation from PTS Diagnostics has enabled a woman in Sierra Leone to receive a long-overdue diagnosis of type 1 diabetes after living with the condition undetected for four years.

This comes after the innovative point-of-care diagnostics solutions provider donated 3,360 tests of the A1CNow®+ test kits to the charity Help Madina and the diabetes facility at the Holy Spirit Hospital in Makeni, meaning many undiagnosed cases of type 1 diabetes were detected.

For four years, the woman was none the wiser to why she was waking up exhausted, constantly feeling thirsty, always going to the toilet, having blurred vision and rapidly losing weight.

In an attempt to get answers, she travelled miles to different clinics, but each visit ended with a shrug and each test with a question mark.

During a visit to the Help Madina Charity UK Diabetes and Hypertension Clinic, the A1CNow®+ test kit changed everything.

For the first time, her blood told its story: a fasting blood sugar of 20.4 mmol/L and an HbA1C of 11.

The A1CNow® device provides point of care testing for diabetes with lab quality accurate results given on the device within five minutes.

It can be used to screen for prediabetes or to monitor blood sugar control in people already diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Compact and portable, the device requires no electricity, making it especially valuable in settings where quick and reliable results are essential.

PTS Diagnostics donated just over £40,000, with the company also covering the cost of freight shipping within the US.

Help Madina, the charity receiving the supplies, works to improve health and wellbeing in the Madina district and across Sierra Leone – one of the world’s poorest regions, where health outcomes remain among the most challenging globally.

Trividia Health UK Ltd is the sister company of PTS Diagnostics. Trividia Health manufacture the TRUE Metrix Air blood glucose meter which is one of the NHS England recommended meters and is widely used across the UK.

The blood glucose meter connects to a free app which stores the person’s readings. Data can be sent across to a healthcare professional or anyone else. The meters are given out free of charge to anyone who has type 2 diabetes and meet the NHS criteria.

Should you wish to purchase a meter, they can be bought at Well Pharmacy online, at Boots or at Pharmacy2U.

If you are a healthcare professional and would like more information on the TRUE Metrix range or the A1CNow®+ products, please contact:

Chloe Young on cyoung@trividiahealth.co.uk or 07974203014.