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News

TRH spend a day in Abu Dhabi

27th February 2007

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall attended the launch of a public health awareness campaign aimed at fighting diabetes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today.

Their Royal Highnesses visited the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre in Abu Dhabi on the fourth leg of their overseas tour to see the launch of Diabetes Knowledge Action.

The UAE has the second highest prevalence of diabetes in the world with 20 per cent of people between 20 and 79 years of age affected.

As well as treat diabetes the centre, which is run mainly by British staff, aims to promote a healthy lifestyle in order to help prevent the disease.

The Prince and The Duchess watched as a group of young children chose from a selection of healthy and unhealthy snacks for their school packed lunch boxes.

Encouraging pupils to eat sensibly is one of the initiatives of the campaign and it is hoped youngsters from the UAE will pass their healthy eating habits on to their families.

When all the children picked up the bottles of water and tiny bags containing fruit and vegetables but left behind the chocolate and crisps, The Prince and The Duchess laughed.

The Prince has a long-standing interest in food and farming and believes in the clear advantages of organic food. 

His Royal Highness is Patron of the Soil Association which aims to teach children about food and nutrition through the Food for Life campaign and also runs his own organic farm near Highgrove.

On 15th February, Their Royal Highnesses hosted a reception at Clarence House to recognise school cooks who are helping to improve the health of schoolchildren in the UK by making more nutritious food.

Footballers from the UAE's national team, who won the Gulf Cup last year, were on hand to promote the diabetes awareness campaign's message of the need to exercise to prevent and help manage the illness.

Their Royal Highnesses watched as the players demonstrated the facilities used to check patients at the state-of-the-art centre, which opened in June last year.

The centre is a joint project between Imperial College London and the Mubadala Development Company, an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government.

It has mainly British medical staff and specialises in four main areas - diabetes treatment, research, training/education and public health.

In one area Their Royal Highnesses watched as a footballer had his blood pressure taken to illustrate the need to have check-ups, while in another a soccer player ran on a treadmill while his heart was wired up to a monitor.

Dr Saf Naqvi told The Prince the running test was designed to stress the heart so staff could see what changes were occurring.

Their Royal Highnesses also met Chef Neil Saqueira, who prepares meals for the UAE national team, and were shown healthy meals of salmon with asparagus and a mozzarella and tomato salad he had prepared.

A spokeswoman for the centre said data about the prevalence of diabetes among children or whether there were a high number of overweight youngsters had not been collated.

She added that diabetes screening centres, being set up in shopping centres as part of the campaign, would give them a chance to collect such information.