Dawn Harper: TV GP Ignored Diabetes Warning for 10 Years
Dawn Harper, an NHS GP and former Embarrassing Bodies co-host, was diagnosed with diabetes in July 2023 after a decade of warning signs. A glucose monitor showed bread sent her blood sugar above 20 mmol/L. She now urges wider NHS access to the devices.
Dawn Harper, a 63-year-old NHS GP and former co-host of Embarrassing Bodies, was diagnosed with diabetes in July 2023 after tests had flagged her as being on the cusp of type 2 diabetes for 10 years. She ignored the warning signs, she says, until a continuous glucose monitor exposed one food in her diet.
That food was bread. It pushed her blood glucose above 20 mmol/L, well outside the safe range of 3.9 to 11.1 mmol/L.
Harper has a healthy BMI of 19, eats a diet built around home-grown vegetables and leads an active life. The diagnosis left her bewildered.
"It was a massive wake-up call," she told Sun Health. Type 2 diabetes is more often diagnosed in people with extra fat around the middle and poor lifestyle habits, so she could not see why she had it.
A rarer form of the disease
Harper bought a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and wore it on the back of her arm. These devices track blood sugar without finger-pricks and show how levels respond to different foods in real time.
Tests later showed she had late-onset type 1 diabetes, known as LADA. It is often misdiagnosed as type 2 because it also appears in later life, but it develops slowly and worsens with time.
According to Diabetes UK, LADA tends to occur in people with a healthy weight. It has traits of both type 1 and type 2, which earns it the nickname type 1.5 and makes it trickier to manage.
By cutting out bread, Harper has avoided medication so far. She says the monitor has been "life-saving" and keeps her blood sugar in range 90 per cent of the time.
The case for wider access
CGMs are available on the NHS only to people with type 1 diabetes, about 400,000 patients, and to high-risk type 2 patients. Buying one privately costs £50 to £120 a month for sensors, plus upfront costs for transmitters and app subscriptions.
Diabetes UK is among several patient groups campaigning for better access under its Diabetes Tech Can't Wait campaign. Harper wants the devices offered to the estimated 6.3 million people with prediabetes, as well as the 4.5 million with type 2.
"If CGMs allow people to cut back on foods that cause a spike in blood sugar, they can prevent prediabetes from progressing to type 2 diabetes," she said.
Diabetes leads to 184 amputations, more than 1,010 strokes, 700 heart attacks and 3,340 cases of heart failure every week. Harper points to heart disease, blindness, kidney disease and dialysis as further risks.
"A CGM costs pounds. Managing diabetes and the complications of poorly controlled glucose costs millions, and that number will only go up if we don't act now," she said.
