Three “diabuddies” set themselves a personal challenge to take 1 million steps each, and before long, 128 people joined in.
South Africa (18 December 2024) – Lurina Fourie of The Glucose Glitch shared a heartwarming story of friendship and raising awareness for people living with Type 1 Diabetes. She and her two “diabuddies” took one million steps this year in an effort to make a difference.
When people living with diabetes become friends, Lurina shared that they are called “dia-buddies”. The trio set a goal to take one million steps each this year, and what started as a personal goal for the three friends turned into something bigger.
“We are three diabuddies living with Type 1 diabetes: Elré, Quintus and myself, hence the reason for the name.
We decided to do it together, to support one another. But soon more and more people asked to join and we just loved it. We decided to turn it into an awareness campaign with a Back a Buddy fundraiser on the side.”
Lurina explains that the main focus was to get people to move more and be more conscious about their health, with the focus on shining the spotlight on diabetes.
“Some days were tough, but we created a strong support structure, and we had one joined vision: reaching those one million steps per person! New friendships were created, and the feedback was heartwarming; we know it made a difference.
Elré, Quintus and I are not tech experts or fitness gurus so we learned a lot and gave it our best. It was fun to see how each of us used our talents to make things work. We’ve been friends for a few years so we understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses and the chemistry was just perfect.”
By the end of the challenge, a total of 128 participants took part, of which 69 had submitted their steps through the online step tracker, and a whopping 24 participants reached the 1 million goal. Together, everyone accumulated a remarkable total of 41,017,433 steps.
“We counted every single step and also celebrated those who did not reach their one million steps because to some, walking 5,000 steps a day was already a great achievement, and we didn’t want to miss the fact that everyone was giving their best, according to their abilities and circumstances.”
Funding was not our main focus. The funds raised will be used to further our diabetes advocacy work in schools across the country. We look forward to being part of the change we wish to see for children living with Type 1 diabetes. There is a lot of stigma and misconception about diabetes, and we get to tackle it, literally one step at a time.”
“We had various lucky draws and quizzes throughout the challenge, which added some extra fun.”
The hope was to reach their goal by the end of November as it was Diabetes Awareness Month. They spent a total of four months working towards the big goal.
“Across the globe, diabetes is a fast-growing reality. Elré, Quintus and I can’t cure the condition, but we can continue to crush stigma and work on the ways people respond to diabetes.
We are thankful to the participants who just kept going and growing with us and we look forward to an ever bigger and better challenge in 2025.”
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