Nowhere in the world can diabetes be more prevalent than in a community visited by a Prince George woman doing her practicum to complete a podiatry degree in foot care.
Karen LeFrancois, working in Frigate Bay on St. Kitts & Nevis islands, said of the 30,000 population, 15 per cent have type I diabetes.
She said the 28 podiatry students and accompanying three physicians set up diabetes clinics to help the people deal with the disease.
"The people there fear diabetes, and look at it as a death sentence. They would far sooner have cancer than diabetes," said LeFrancois who has earned her Bachelor of Science degree in podiatry from the North American School of Podology.
"We probably saved at least 30 amputations by setting up the clinics," she said.
Diabetes runs rampant among the population mainly due to lifestyle, she said. Read the rest of the story in The Citizen. --btrick@pgcitizen.ca
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