Sherri Shepherd On Health And Diabetes Journey And Oprah Passing The Baton
Actress and television host, Sherri Shepherd is getting real about her personal health and diabetes journey in hopes of raising awareness and expanding access to life-changing technology.
The “Sherri” host has proudly teamed up with Abbott to help expand access to and awareness of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology. As a Type 2 Diabetes patient and user of Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre sensor, Shepherd aimed at getting the community in the know about the affordable life-saving technology.
“I’m so passionate about health and when they let me know that somebody is newly diagnosed with diabetes every 23 seconds (in the US), I was blown away because I am one of those people back when I was diagnosed,” she told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
Last month was National Diabetes Awareness Month and World Diabetes Day (Nov 14) and Shepherd was busy with Abbott’s Countdown at a Crossroads campaign where every person who visited www.Crossroads.Abbott during the month of November a $0.99 donation* was provided to the American Diabetes Association’s Health Equity Now program.
While diabetes is one of the fastest-growing epidemics in the United States, only 1% of people living with the disease are utilizing CGM technology. Diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes herself in 2007, Shepherd is no stranger to the disease and is using her platform to speak through the uses and benefits of CGM technology and share how it has helped improve her life.
“One of the things that has helped me tremendously is a continuous glucose monitor that I have right above my elbow,” she shared. “And this is something that so many folks with diabetes are just not aware of. And literally, it transfers the information to my cell phone within seconds.”
It’s a personal fight for Shepherd who lost her mother to diabetes-related complications and has seen her sister and uncle battle with the disease as well. For Shepherd, it’s not her story, it’s our story.
“I always heard the term “sugar”, you know, that’s what my family would say ‘Oh, you know, he just got the sugar,'” she recalled. “And that’s diabetes. And in the African American community, that’s what we use, sugar. I think that that word is not a good word to use because it really covers how serious and detrimental diabetes can be.”
Shepherd has a lot of living to do as her daytime talk show dominates in ratings as the No. 2 talk show among women in the 25 to 54 age demo. Speaking to BLACK ENTERPRISE on the heels of an appearance from Oprah Winfrey who happily passed the baton to the daytime host, Shepherd admitted to crying tears of joy all day since the interview.
“It’s so important for me because this is a woman who looked like me and I would watch her,” she shared. “To see someone who looked like me, to see the journey that Oprah went through and how she has triumphed. I just used to dream about that so much and being a struggling comic sitting on a bus stop.”
“Oprah saying, ‘I’m passing it to you’ in this aspect was a big deal for me,” Shepherd continued. “I’m like, oh my god, you get me. You see me.”