A new day dawns for Pinjarra man Fred Knox

A year ago Mr Knox was struggling with drugs, drinking a carton and a half in one sit, eating three packets of biscuits a day, and suffering from severe type 1 diabetes. 

“I’d have a cup of tea with three large sugars, if I had cereal I’d have sugar in it, if I drank I drank a carton and a half,” the 39-year-old said.

“I was down a dark track there at one part with the drugs and alcohol.”

One year on, Mr Knox has given up drugs and drinking, has lost six kilos, is eating clean and doesn’t need insulin shots four times a day.

“I feel like I’m a different person,” he said.

“Even the doctor says I look like a different person.”

He turned his life around. And he did so with the help of Aboriginal health centre Nidjalla Waangan Mia’s health program.

The free program encourages participants to adopt healthy habits such as exercising and cutting down on their sugar intake in a safe and non-judgmental way.

Once a week, group members are encouraged to share their experiences, help each other and learn useful healthy practices through hands-on activities with the help of the program facilitators.

“We do exercise, an education session and then we get in the kitchen and cook a healthy meal,” program facilitator Karryn Gidgup said.

“We get everyone involved and everyone just gets along so well.”

Mr Knox decided to give the program ago after seeing a leaflet on the way out from one of his regular regular health checks at the centre.

“I was coming here and I was getting my bloods done and just looking at all the results and how bad they were,” he said.

“It’s like a light bulb clicked.”

The son of two diabetics, he had seen the harmful effects of diabetes and an unhealthy lifestyle first hand and he was determined to follow a different path.

“My mum, she had looked after herself and she is fine, and my dad more or less died from it because he neglected himself,” he said.

“He got one sore on a toe and then the next toe, then half his foot, then his leg.

“I’ve seen it first hand, if you look after yourself and if you don’t what’s going to happen.”

Keeping his own experience in mind, Mr Knox embraced the program, focused on the comradely and turned his life around.

The best about his journey, he said, was getting his life back.

“Half of it is you, whether you want to do it, and the other half is having somewhere to do it and having the tools,” he said.

“The program more or less gives you the tools.”

One year into his recovery, Mr Knox immortalised his journey through the program in a traditional Aboriginal painting which he presented to course facilitators Kerryn Gidgup, Elizabeth Wilks and Cyril Yarran on Thursday.

The three middle dots represent the three group facilitators, while the outside dots represent the program’s participants.

The lines linking the facilitators to the participants represent the transmission of knowledge.

“It’s just to let them know that I appreciate them and what they do, because that’s all about what they do,” Mr Knox said.

Nidjalla Waangan Mia was established in 2010 to help meet the health needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Peel region.

The centre’s services include a nurse-led clinic, care coordination, a supplementary services program and an outreach worker. 

The centre also offers podiatry services, diabetes education and visiting specialists.

Nidjalla Waangan Mia is located at 112 Lakes Road, Mandurah, and is open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 4.30pm. 

For more information call (08) 9586 4580.