November 14 is World Diabetes Day. On that day, at 14:00 hours (local time), thousands of people with diabetes will test their blood sugar, do 14 minutes of exercise, test again and share their results on TuDiabetes or on Twitter.
The event is called The Big Blue Test because blue is the color associated with World Diabetes Day. It is based on a test-in activity that took place July 14, where more than a thousand people with diabetes tested their blood sugar at the same time and shared their results online. This time, the activity incorporates 14 minutes of physical activity to reinforce the importance of exercise.
Participating in this event to raise diabetes awareness on November 14 is easy:
- At 2 pm (your local time), test your blood sugar.
- Run, jog, walk the dog or do anything you’d normally do as part of your exercise routine for 14 minutes.
- Test your blood sugar again.
- If you are a member of TuDiabetes click on the home page banner and share your readings and what exercise you did between them. If you have a camera, you can also add a photo of your reading(s) or you exercising.
- If you have a Twitter account, post your readings on Twitter (use the #bigblue hashtag) and link back to: http://bigbluetest.org.
We hope to see most readings posted at 14 hours (2 pm) local time, on November 14. If you are early or late, it’s OK.
What really matters is that you test your blood sugar often and that you exercise regularly. If you don’t have diabetes, you can still take The Big Blue Test. Regardless, tell others to test, exercise and share on November 14.
IMPORTANT:
If due to disability or medical advice you cannot exercise, naturally we don’t expect you to do anything that will put you or your health at risk. We’d love you to participate entering your blood sugar readings.
UPDATE (Oct. 21, 2009):
If you work in media or have access to local media, please help us get the word out about the event, by sending them the press release attached below.
UPDATE (Nov. 1, 2009):
Here are a couple of banners (one static, one animated) that you can use to include in your blog. Please remember to link it to http://bigbluetest.org (which points back to this page).
