As part of Diabetes Awareness Month, a local hospital is helping educate the community about the disease. 

Type 2 diabetic Joyce Howard says she watches what she eats and often reads food labels to help control her sugar and carb intake. 

Howard was diagnosed with diabetes in 2007 after a checkup found she had the condition. 

She says it was the memory of an 8-year-old girl seeing her great uncle, who had diabetes, and the condition it left him in that caused her to immediately make lifestyle changes after she was diagnosed. 

She says she avoids processed foods and takes lengthy walks. Unfortunately, diabetes continues to be a chronic and sometimes deadly disease in communities of color. 

According to the American Diabetes Association, over 11% of African Americans and Latinos suffer from diabetes nationwide. 

Rita Louard is Howard's doctor and works at Montefiore Medical Center. She says the hospital is helping to educate the community. 

Howard says November is special because it’s Diabetes Awareness Month. She says it is never too late to make lifestyle changes.