An advocate and lobbyist for diabetes and the blind will be performing today at the Bermuda Diabetes Association?s 25th anniversary Gala Concert.

Janelle Colquhoun, also an opera singer and producer who hails from Australia, spoke to Hamilton Rotarians yesterday about the challenges she faced growing up with diabetes.

And Ms Colquhoun has been lobbying the Australian Government for the last three years to provide talking blood test monitors for blind people with diabetes.

She demonstrated to Rotarians how the instrument works and explained her difficulty checking her blood sugar level before she owned the talking instrument.

But she said she was lucky to have her ?trusty husband? by her side to tell her what the readings were.

Ms Colquhoun was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of ten and said she ignored doctors? orders on how to care for her condition.

?As I got older things were run the way I wanted them to,? she said.

Ms Colquhoun was advised not to travel because of her Type One Diabetes but she wanted to travel and be on stage so she went ahead and did it anyway.

?I had doctors screaming at me, saying I would be dead at 30 if I did not get it (diabetes) under control,? she said.

Ms Colquhoun lost her eyesight at age 29 ? after a dozen operations ? from complications stemming from diabetes.

?I moved back to Australia because you go home when you are hit with these types of crisis,? she said.

She added that she joined numerous boards and committees after she returned because she realised she had information to share.

Ms Colquhoun told Rotarians that she began to meet other performers with disabilities who complained to her about their difficulties finding work.

Ms Colquhoun was moved by their stories to create Salubrious Productions in 2000, an agency that manages performers with disabilities. After four years she represents 150 artists, many with disabilities.

She has dubbed them ?artists with ability?.

Ms Colquhoun, who also gave Rotarians a preview of her singing voice, had offered to come to Bermuda to sing at the Bermuda Diabetes Associations Gala Concert and Silent Auction.

And she is donating some proceeds from her CD to the Bermuda Diabetes Association because she thinks they are doing a wonderful job.

At the Gala she will be performing opera with the Menuhin Quartet and jazz with Howie Rego Band.

The concert begins at 7.15 p.m. in the Harbourview Ballroom at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

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