Gordon Brown to present Big B with module diabetes unit-bus

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan will be presented with a diabetes tracking van, called 'Amitabh', by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at an event in London.

Silver Star, an organisation under the patronage of Indian-origin Labour MP, Keith Vaz, will donate this bus to help screen people for diabetes in Mumbai.

'I had inaugurated this very worthy and noble cause here in Leicester some time ago and some months back, I had gone to Goa in India to launch the MDU (Module Diabetic Unit) there,' Big B posted on his blog bigb.bigadda.com.

'The van is being called 'Amitabh', which is a little embarrassing, because of my support for this very noble cause and because I had become its chief patron when this exercise was initiated. Other MDU's shall be launched in time to come, for Delhi and Kerala as well.

'This unit works as a service for the detection of diabetes, an ailment which many a time goes unnoticed until it's too late,' the 67-year-old wrote.

Silver Star carries out free diabetes testing and promotes culturally sensitive healthcare, focusing particularly on the high prevalence of diabetes among the South Asian community in Britain and internationally.

Since 2007, Silver Star has tested 4,695 people in Britain.