An open day was held yesterday at a custom-built centre built by a diabetes charity.

The Bermuda Diabetes Society event at the new Hilton Hill Diabetes Centre, held in Diabetes Awareness Month, was designed to promote education and resources available to help people with the disease.

Kim Day, the executive director for the centre, said: “This year has been a very difficult year for so many, but we are extremely fortunate that with some generous donations we are able to continue to strengthen our programmes and continue to support the uninsured and underinsured patients in need of their medication.

“We have a full service pharmacy open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 4.30pm and, as a charity, we are lucky that we are able to offer medication at a reasonable cost.”

The association said about 13 per cent of the population in Bermuda has been diagnosed with diabetes, one in three people over the age of 65 has diabetes and the majority of its clients were aged over 65.

The Bermuda Diabetes Association, formerly on Beacon Street, Hamilton, has been at 22 Princess Street, Hamilton, since August and runs several free workshops.

The centre hosts a free Know Your Diabetes morning education workshop from 8.30am to noon on Tuesdays, where Sara Bosch de Noya of the association covers the essentials of diabetes management.

Ms Bosch de Noya carried out blood sugar screenings and blood pressure checks at the open day.

The centre runs the Freestyle Libre training workshops from noon to 1pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The workshops train diabetics how to use the Freestyle Libre blood sugar monitor, which eliminates the need of a finger prick to draw blood.

Clients also have the opportunity to meet the association’s in-house pharmacist for one-to-one discussions about medicines.

The centre is open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 4.30pm.

The centre offered free healthy food tastings from wholesalers Butterfield & Vallis and Hint water from soft drinks firm John Barritt & Son.

Ms Bosch de Noya carried out blood sugar screenings and blood pressure checks at the open day.

Friday, November 13 is Denim for Diabetes Day.

For more information, visit www.diabetes.bm