One of Northampton’s most familiar faces is hoping to raise hundreds of pounds for charity by walking one million steps around the town centre.
Balpreet Singh greets hundreds of shoppers and works closely with retailers in his role as a ‘host’ for Northampton Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID). Every day he covers several miles patrolling the town, helping visitors, speaking to business owners and liaising with local authority partners.
The 23-year-old is now putting the hard yards to good use by taking part in Diabetes UK’s One Million Step challenge – which sees all entrants tasked with trekking the distance in three months.
He said: “I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of five and it has been a rollercoaster of an experience ever since. From being in hospital and seeing my parents crying their eyes out to me now working as hard as I can with my diabetes nurses to ease my lifestyle and journey.
“I saw this amazing challenge and thought this is exactly the sort of thing I want to do to play my part in supporting the people who are going through the very thing I have been fighting for nearly 20 years.
“It won’t be an easy challenge but the support will really push me towards my goal and make it easier for me to achieve my target of 12,000 steps a day, every day for 92 days.”
Type 1 diabetes is a condition where your blood sugar is too high because your body can’t produce insulin. Fewer than one in 10 people in the UK who have diabetes have type 1 diabetes, the vast majority have type 2. Although it’s often diagnosed in childhood, people can develop type 1 diabetes at any age. There is currently no cure for type 1 diabetes.
To support Balpreet and donate to the Diabetes UK One Million Step challenge visit https://step.diabetes.org.uk/fundraising/balpreet-singh#share-page