56-year-old Jamil Khan is a lifelong Bradford resident. He has a relaxed, affable demeanour and speaks with energy about family life, his 25-years-long career in the NHS and his appreciation for his garden shed.
But energy is a more recent sensation for Jamil. Just a year ago, his life was marked by something different: fatigue. In a story familiar to many, Covid-19 had reduced Jamil’s job to sedentary, home-based desk work and while this had altered Jamil’s lifestyle – he was moving less and barely exercising – his diet stayed the same. Five years post-pandemic, Jamil’s weight had increased to 125kg and his energy levels were depleted.
But it was insomnia that eventually brought Jamil to his local GP. A self-proclaimed evader of medicine, his fractured sleep began to affect his life so significantly that he sought medical advice in early 2025.
“I was having so many sleep issues, it was very broken”, recalls Jamil, who found himself struggling to keep up with his busy life of ‘helping other people, dropping off, picking up, buying, shopping, working …’
“It began affecting me during the day, I wasn’t able to concentrate and at weekends I would crash, I’d be sleeping in the afternoons. And I’d started getting migraines, which I’d never had before.
“I’d always thought it was just my age, but I’d started to think: ‘This can’t be right. Something’s off here, I need to get checked.’”
A standard blood test revealed that Jamil was at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, a disease whose profound impact he was sadly familiar with.
“I’ve known quite a few people who have had diabetes, and they’ve lost limbs and then their lives. That affected me. I’ve known family members when they were in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s – and then witnessed them deteriorate quickly in their 60s because of diabetes.”
Bradford has the highest rate of diabetes in the UK, with more than one in 10 residents officially diagnosed and countless others living with pre-diabetes or unaware they are affected. The challenge is compounded by the city’s demographics: Bradford has one of the largest South Asian populations in the country, and evidence shows that people from South Asian, Black African and African Caribbean backgrounds face a significantly higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes from as young as 25. By comparison, risk in the white population typically begins to rise from the age of 40.
Jamil, himself of South Asian descent, took action quickly.
If you’ve ever had diabetes in your family, you know how bad it is. I didn’t want to get to that point; I didn’t want to suffer. I wanted to do what I could to recover and to avoid it.
“So I joined Healthier You. It sounded perfect to me, I’d never really taken medication, I didn’t want pills, I wanted to make my own changes. I went in with positivity. I said, ‘I’ve got a chance here to improve and change, and I will, because I need to.’”
Over the course of 10 years, Reed Wellbeing has supported more than 179,000 people to reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The nine-month programme of monthly, face-to-face sessions helps people to understand health risks and take control of their health through simple tweaks to their nutrition and lifestyle.
“I listened to everything that was said”, said Jamil, who attended Healthier You at his local community centre, “and after every session, I implemented at least one thing. And as a result of that one thing, I’d see results.”
For Jamil, the changes were small and manageable. While they required commitment and consistency, they weren’t the drastic measures he expected.
“I think there’s a preconception that you need to lose an excessive amount of weight and that it’s going to be hard and not sustainable, but that wasn’t my experience. This isn’t a weight-loss group, it’s a lifestyle change service. Yes, the goal is to change the way you’re eating to make your body internally fitter and healthier, but it’s not about how you look from the outside.”
Jamil’s Healthier You coach helped him to review his habits and identify where he could make changes. “I started to look at the things I ate that I didn’t need, and I started to realise that we generate health issues for ourselves.
“I stopped with that: I said ‘no’ to what I didn’t need. That changed things for me dramatically.
“I started moving a little more. Nothing major, just 30 minutes of movement each week. I changed the type of oils we were cooking with.. That was probably the smallest change with the biggest output for me – three months after we changed oils, my glucose level went down, my HBA1C [a test that measures glucose levels in the blood] dropped significantly.”
It is with a sombre sense of frustration that Jamil reflects on those he has lost to diabetes.
“Knowing now that actually, if they just had a bit of advice and were told – ‘this is where you’re going wrong, if you make a bit of effort here it could really help you’ – things might have been different. But they were just carrying on, not knowing soon enough that it was the food. It’s unbelievable.”
It is perhaps the experience of witnessing such suffering that has driven Jamil to become a ‘Healthier You Ambassador’, drawing on his own and others’ experiences to encourage peers in his community to take control of their health: “You just have to get checked, then make a few changes and implement something that will work. Start there and you’ll get to where I am. Life will improve.”
Things are different for Jamil now. He’s out of the diabetes risk zone. He is lighter – not just in weight – he has lost 15kg – but in presence: “My friends have noticed”, he smiles. “They say, ‘Hang on, where’s this energy come from? He’s all buzzy!’
“It’s not just my physical health that’s improved, my mental health has too. Healthier You has given me time for myself. I’m doing something for me”
That time includes a new project: Jamil’s back garden. “Before this year, I’ve never even really been out in the back garden. But I’ve decided to fix it up. I’ve bought a shed, sorted my fencing. We’ve been planting and hardcoring and making it look super, it feels good to have the motivation to do something like that now. I’m enjoying it.”
But the most welcome change for Jamil, aside from being out of the prediabetic zone?
“Sleep! My sleep has dramatically improved. I now have a good night’s sleep most nights, so I’m full of energy all day and I’m not even tired after work. My weekends are now full of activity, and I can do stuff.
“It’s absolutely brilliant.”