S Club 43

I can't talk about it I mutter to my friend Mike over lunch

What he asks

I can't say. I really can't say...

It's just ...

I am in a club and I'm not happy about it, people'll judge me if I tell them so I have kept it to myself 

Mike starts to laugh it can't be that bad surely

Oh it is

To me anyway. I cough nervously then tell all

I am one of the seven million members of S Club 43, Mikes grin widens and he laughs. So am I he titters nervously. I can't talk about it either, as an organic vegan all my mates would double up in glee if they knew.

What are you doing about it he asks

I have been trying to give up sweet things, cake and chocolate, like a self imposed Lent, and I was doing really well until I bought some chocolate bunnies as a surprise for Easter for me and Mr H. 

But only I knew where they were hidden..

One evening I went to bed but couldn't sleep I kept seeing the bunny bounce before my eyes. It was teasing me in all it's chocolateyness...

So I came downstairs and tried to distract myself with a jigsaw and raw carrot but the bunny kept hopping into view sniffing eat me, eat me, please eat me...

...and I caved in and dragged it from its hiding place. I ripped the cellophane off and bit one of its ears, it melted in all its organic-ness as soon as it hit my lips...

I bit off the other ear, then the body, too solid to break into pieces I gnawed like an animal, chocolate smearing my face...

Picture Le Comte de Reynaud in the film Chocolat when he repents and fasts during Lent but then surrenders to a window full of chocolate the day before Easter Sunday...that was me!

I managed to stop myself just before I reached his ground thumping feet and hid the mangled, chewed remains in a drawer...

A symptomless HbA1c blood sugar level of 43, found by chance when the GP tested me following a group of horrible seizures, is so frustrating. Forty one would be within normal range but 43 means I carry the pre-diabetes label. I became a member of S Club 43. Luckily it can be reversible so it's better to know so that Mike and I can do something about it and prevent ourselves becoming members of the ever growing Type 2 Diabetes Club. Now for me the most important thing I can do is lose some more weight...whereas Mike is a thin as a rake so maybe its genetic too...

More information and statistics can be found on Diabetes UK website...