A benefit concert entitled Together Against Diabetes is being held at Sofia's National Palace of Culture, NDK, at 8pm on November 14 2008 to mark World Diabetes Day.

Among those taking part are Doni and Neti, and members of Dancing Stars and Music Idol Bulgaria. The concert has been organised by the National Association for Children with Diabetes in Bulgaria (NACDB).

All proceeds will go to assist children who have diabetes.

The United Nations passed a resolution in 2004 establishing World Diabetes Day, making diabetes only the second disease after HIV/AIDS to have an official UN day.

The UN World Diabetes Day resolution describes diabetes as "a threat to families, member states and the entire world." For the first time a non-infectious disease is seen as posing as serious a threat to global health as infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. IDF and WHO figures indicate that more than 246 million people now have diabetes worldwide. This number is set to reach 380 million by 2025 if significant action is not taken, according to the official website of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)

The IDF's main goal to educate and inform the public of the alarming increase in cases of sugar diabetes on a global scale, which can easily be labelled as a pandemic. The idea is to improve access to quality and reliable information, potential prevention from contracting the disease through diet and education and the implementation of national diet programmes worldwide.

Diabetes is a syndrome of disordered metabolism, usually because of a combination of hereditary and environmental causes, resulting in abnormally high blood sugar levels or hyperglycemia. Blood glucose levels are controlled by a complex interaction of several chemicals and hormones in the body, including the hormone insulin made which is produced in the human body in the pancreas.

Diabetes mellitus refers to the group of diseases that lead to high blood glucose levels due to defects in either insulin secretion or insulin action. Standard symptoms of diabetes are polyuria, polydipsia and polyphagia, which basically interpret as, frequent urination, increased thirst and consequent increased fluid intake, and of course - increased appetite.