John Peel: My life as a diabetic

Like up to a million people in the UK today, broadcaster John Peel had no idea that he was diabetic. The symptoms, he feared, were just part of the natural ageing process. Last autumn, Peel felt he was on his last legs. "I'd been staying with friends in North Wales and just eating and drinking too much," recalls the 62-year-old broadcaster. "On the way back, I felt spectacularly bad. I had to stop for a pee every 45 minutes. Having had about a dozen pees between Betwys-y-Coed and Suffolk I thought, 'This is not normal'. I went to see the doctor the next day, and they did a urine test which seemed to show that I wasn't diabetic.

"It was my wife, Sheila, who insisted that I had a blood test. I came home, sat down on the bed, and the phone rang. It was someone from the surgery telling me that I had to go to A&E - - right now."

Peel and Sheila, affectionately known as "The Pig" because of the way she laughs, have four children - - William, 26, Alexandra, 24, Thomas, 22 and Florence, 20 - and live in a pink-walled, thatched cottage in eight acres of countryside. They made for West Suffolk hospital-at speed. "We got there, and the charge nurse asked, 'And how long have you been diabetic?' So I said, 'As far as I know, I'm not.' 'Oh yes you are,' she replied. So that was the first intimation I'd had that I was diabetic."

Straightaway, he was put on an insulin drip to stabilise his blood-sugar levels. It did the trick. "I felt better within what seemed like seconds," he says. "It was as though I'd had some religious experience. In fact, I was rather obnoxious, I felt so much better."

There are around 1,500,000 diabetics in the UK at the moment, and that number is expected to double by 2010 as the population ages and the rate of obesity, which increases the risk of diabetes, rises. But doctors estimate there are up to a further million people suffering from diabetes, who are blissfully ignorant of their condition.

Diabetes can affect the kidneys, the eyes and the heart, but often the only symptom is a general feeling of malaise and exhaustion - which is precisely what Peel found so crushing.

"Prior to diagnosis, it was fairly terrible," says Peel, speaking from his home, where three rooms and an outbuilding are lined with large, cubed shelves precisely designed as optimum storage for his colossal record collection. "There was nothing specific - I didn't have blood gushing out of orifices, but I just felt awful, and I had to sleep three or four times a day. I assumed it was part of the ageing process, and that it would get worse rather than better."

Diabetes is a progressive disease, and the longer you have it, the worse it can be. A common problem for diabetics is a condition called diabetic retinopathy, where the blood vessels at the back of the eye can burst. It is the leading cause of blindness in people of working age in the UK.

Peel had suffered from retinopathy, but without knowing why. "It was like having a gauze curtain flapping backwards and forwards across your vision. I felt like some middle eastern temple prostitute because I was permanently gazing from behind gauze. This thing was just there the whole time. I kept wanting to peer around it, or part it and look through it. I had laser treatment for that a couple of times, and I was surprised that at the time no one said this might be related to diabetes. The D-word wasn't used at all. But a routine blood test might have picked this up.''

Diabetics must monitor their blood-sugar levels, a process made much easier by the latest, electronic monitors. Peel shows off the natty little gadget he uses to test his blood-sugar levels. "It's quite a fiddly little thing," he says, prising off the cover. "Once you've got the cover off, you switch it on, then you insert the little strip," he says, pushing a strip of absorbent card into the body of the machine. "Then you take this little devil," he says, picking up a slim, cylindrical device and pricking the ring finger of his left hand with practised fingers. "I always use this finger because it always yields blood, in an almost Old Testament sort of way, like Moses striking the rock and the river leaping forth. The others are a bit reluctant."

He places the device against his finger, presses the button that activates a tiny needle, then squeezes a drop of blood from the pinprick hole that the machine has created. "And lo," he announces, waving the finger which now sports a large bead of blood, "there is blood. You put the blood on the green strip, it accepts it gratefully and ... the reading is 5.4. Ideal," he says. "Any lower and I'd start feeling wobbly."

Early diagnosis can help prevent complications - such as diabetic retinopathy, heart problems, kidney failure and damage to the lower limbs - and screening could pick up those at risk. These groups include the elderly, the obese - being overweight doubles the risk of developing diabetes - or those from ethnic minorities who are more susceptible. Diabetes is two to three times higher in Afro-Caribbean communities, and four to six times higher in south Asian communities, than among caucasians.

But screening is expensive, and the Government has yet to be persuaded of the virtues of a screening programme. "There is no point in setting up screening until you can identify who needs screening and ensure you can give them the care they need," says health minister Jacqui Smith. Diagnosing new diabetics would only add to the cost for an already stretched NHS - although if it is left undiagnosed, the resulting complications are likely to cost significantly more.

"If there were another million undiagnosed diabetics in the country, I wouldn't be at all surprised," says Peel. "If my wife Sheila hadn't insisted on a blood test, I wouldn't have known I was diabetic and I'd still be thinking it was normal to feel as terrible as I did."

John Peel will be talking about his diabetes on Life is Sweet, Channel 4, 6 April.