HUNDREDS of health professionals and Oxford residents gathered for an eye-opening afternoon of talks and demonstrations to mark World Diabetes Day.

The Diabetes Open Day at the Churchill Hospital saw staff from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and researchers from Oxford University shine a light on the condition, which affects about one in 20 people in the county, for an assembled audience of patients and members of the public.

Visitors to the hospital on last week were treated to an array of interactive stalls and the chance to meet scientists, nurses and doctors fighting the disease.

Maria Trafford, a former gym instructor who worked with diabetics referred to the gym by their GP, came along out of interest on the night.

The Cowley resident said: "It was really good. There was lots to learn about; we went into the place where they take islets [the regions of the pancreas that contain its hormone-producing cells] from the pancreas. I was fascinated by that and how they can put them into patients and to help them."

Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood sugar to become too high. Most people are affected by type 2 diabetes, where the body does not produce enough insulin - the hormone that controls blood sugar. A total of 28,627 adults in Oxfordshire had diabetes in 2015/16, up from 28,057 the year before.

But it is believed many more could be going undiagnosed as a September 2016 audit of all inpatients at the four hospitals run by OUH found 15.6 per cent had diabetes.

On the day Prof Fredrik Karpe, head of the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM) at the Churchill, gave a talk entitled 'Apples or Pears' on the different types of body fat and their association with diabetes risk, as recently seen on BBC Two's 'Trust Me I'm a Doctor'.

Visitors with diabetes were also offered the chance to take part in upcoming research and trials to help advance new treatments.

Scientist Dr Reshma Ramracheya, who works at OCDEM as a researcher, brought twin daughters Rhiditika and Rhianna, both seven, along to the event.

She said: "I have been at OCDEM for about 10 years now and it has changed massively. The greatest change has been the availability of human islets from donors.

"We are doing things in the labs behind closed doors which people would perhaps never know about unless they read scientific journals.

"The event was brilliant and like other previous events, it was very rewarding. We are working tirelessly to try and cure diabetes and it's great to be able to share that."