Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The Talkie Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded
by Charlie Comens and dedicated to assisting low income diabetic
patients in Georgia. They're starting with new support groups all
throughout Southeast Georgia. The kickoff meeting will be held on
August the fifth from seven to eight pm in the
Community Room at the Railway Express Agency in downtown way Cross. Today,
(00:32):
our guest on the show is Charlie Comens, founder of
the Talkie Foundation. Well, Charlie, you've got the Talky Foundation,
the Diabetes Foundation. Talk about what you're doing, because you
have some big things coming in August, August of fifth.
You've got a big kickoff.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, we're kicking off in August, August the fifth at
seven pm and Waycross at the rail Depot station. It's
a beautiful thing. It's historical. It's a refurbished railroad station.
So uh, the Talkie Foundation. It's Attila Memorial Hospital out
in Waycross, which is a great hospital system.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
By the way, John, they did great work. You know.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We got together and we came up with this initiative
and what it is is. We're bringing awareness and education
to South Georgia.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
About diabetes. And you know, you and I have been
friends for a long time, and.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You know you even you even.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Came to our annual event down on jack Wiland a
couple of years ago, so you got to see us, right.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Look, look, we were working to purchase insulin for indigent people.
That was the foundation premise, right, you know, because I
just was so sick with this and I didn't even
know what the heck it was and I found out
and then I found out how expensive it was and
all that, and so our my board of directors, who
(01:59):
are just amazing people from all over the United States,
even though we're a Georgia foundation, but we're just like
looking at each other, going, look, you know, we've made
a change in this insulent persons, or.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
At least they did.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But now, you know, you don't know what's gonna happen
with all these cuts into medicaid.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
You know, you don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
But currently insulin is basically affordable. So we took our
focus off of Curtis V. Cooper in Savannah and giving
them money and you know, trying to help people that
can't afford the insulin to actually bringing education and awareness.
So we spent all of last year raising money so
(02:41):
we could do this.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
To be honest, We've partnered with First Tea.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Of Savannah, which is as I'm sure you're aware, First
He's one of the great golfing organizations in America and
in Chatham County in Savannah, there's sixteen thousand students participating
in that program, which eighty percent of them are minorities.
Now in the state of Georgia, you know, we've talked
(03:07):
about these numbers before. I mean, there's a quarter of
a million people that don't know they have diabetes.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, I can assure you, John, for real, half of
them are not minorities.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, those are normal, you know, normal white folks going
to work every day and they have no idea they
have diabetes. Same way with the black folks, I mean.
And so look, somebody's got to talk about this because
it's an epidemic. And so we have literally focused that
(03:41):
for the last year on bringing education and awareness to
South Georgia, Savannah, Brunswick, darien Waycross, Hoboken, Jessup.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Pierce County, the home of the Bears.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Oh yeah, all right, we're bringing it so we're going
to have monthly meetings and those three places, they're.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Gonna be an hour long. We're gonna bring diabetics together.
We're gonna talk about things.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
We're gonna talk about diabetes because all of us diabetics
have these issues and we all have questions and things
like that.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
We're gonna bring us together.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
And so we're gonna come in, we're gonna talk, We're
gonna have a really good speaker every one of them.
We'll probably have some healthy snacks, and then we're gonna
and then out in Waycross on the fifth.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
That's our kickoff.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So we're really pushing forward to it and we're really
excited about it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Now, do you talk about you you've almost lost your
life many times because of diabetes, and you have a dog.
Talk about your dog. And that's that's why it's called
Talking Foundation, because it was a dog. Once said, your
dog now is with you all the time. Talk about
that dog?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Well, you know, to be honest about it. Yeah, you know,
we evolved. You know, out in front of eight ESPN
radio stations. It was killing me, John, it was killing me,
and I had to make an adjustment, and so I
(05:16):
got out and that's not necessarily the whole reason why,
but that's part of it. And so the foundation was
built inside of that. So it came with great fervor,
built around a large ESPN group, you know of affiliated
radio stations all over Georgia. All right, well that's gone.
(05:40):
The Foundation has gone to another level right now. A
lot of the energy that was put into executing and
managing all of that has gone into the foundation and
my advertising agency. And so Talkie was my dog, and
he was my dog. Before Talkie, I had Nicos and
(06:02):
my company has called Nico's Creative. Before Nicos, I had Timber,
and before Timber, I had Leo the first. So this
goes back years, well not quite forty five years, and
they're all related, they're all the same dog. So but anyways,
I was having terrible diabetic problems.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I was a Type two, not on insulin, and they
tried a new poem. Literally it killed me.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
John I fell out my shower in DKA diabetic keto
acidosis and they had to come and take me to
the hospital and shock me, and Talkie was with me,
and I lived. They didn't think I would live, and
I did. And then I went over to Europe to
visit my family, and I completely fell out over there,
(06:51):
and that's when they diagnosed, you know, the the insulin dependency.
And so the foundation was built because my dog and
now I have Leo.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Here's his pop.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
And you're right, he's staring at me in the back
of the truck right now.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
He goes everywhere I go. I'm all plugged in. I
wear an just free diabetics out there.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I wear an omnipod, and I wear a Freestyle Libra
two plus I managed them manually. My A one C
is six point one. All these devices. So some people say, well,
do you need the doll? You know, I want everyone
to go to Talkie Foundation on Facebook so you could
watch the remarkableness of these animals.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You see it because we're Facebook bread. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
So you know the other day I put that up
because I was getting ready to fall.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I woke up in the.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Morning of my blood sugar was eighty one going down,
and I felt it. You know, you can feel these things, John, and.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I felt it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I checked my blood and and then I didn't
have to check no more because I had Leo sitting
in front of me looking at me.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Wow, he wasn't learning me, he was looking at me.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
It's just about him getting my attention. And so that
thing I put on the Facebook, I talking because it
gives people an opportunity to actually watch these dogs work
and see. It's all driven by scent, you know, it's
all driven by the way they smell and so.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And again, you know, little Leo, when he.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Came out, he was immediately put in front of a
nipple with one of my cotton balls filled with my spite,
and so that's how he had to learn that he
got a reward if he would smell that, all right,
And so he was trained to smell that by a
cotton ball with my spit, so that would go in
front of the nipple. So from the very first time
(08:41):
on his case, day two, he'd have to move that
nipple with that cotton ball with his nose in order
to get that reward, which was the nipple. And that's
how you train these animals. I'm not supposed to talk
about that because I'm a trainer, but that's how they're trained.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You've named the foundation the Talkie Foundation after talking and
you're doing you're doing great things with diabetes and telling
people about it. But I know, first of all, you
talk about a number of people in the state of
Georgia alone who have it and don't know it. Talk
about how you tell people. You want to tell people, Look,
(09:18):
get checked for diabetes. You may have it.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Look, John, this is listen. We're all human beings. We
all know our bodies better than anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Right. I don't care if you have insurance or if
you don't.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I don't care if you're fat or skinny. I don't
care if you're black, white or Asian. I don't care
what you are. But if you notice that you're peeing
a lot, yeah, and you're losing weight, you need to
get checked, all right. So what basically what we do
is we go in like we're starting back to school
exposed now, right, and so we're going to be going
(09:53):
out to you know, these school back together things, and
I take Leo and we set up it's our you know,
our promotional stuff and handing out T shirts and all that.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
But at the end of the.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Day, what we're doing is we're talking to parents about
their kids, and we're talking to parents about their parents,
and we're talking to parents about them. Because nobody is
safe nobody, because our diet for the type two's out
there has been built to make us type two diabetics.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I mean literally, the.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Food companies, everything in this processed food, I mean it
has built us to become diabetics. Everybody. I don't care
who you are. I don't care if you're a marathon trainer.
And when you get into type one diabetes, you know
that's immune deficiency. You know, you can't eat your way
to that. You either have it or you don't unless
(10:53):
something happens to you like me where you lose your
pancreas and you have to become insule independent. That's what
we do, John. We get out in front of people,
and the first thing we do is we ask people
if they know what diabetes is?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Right, do you know what it is? Have you heard
about it? Is anyone in your family diabetic that you
know of? All?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Right? Then the second thing, you know, most people say, well,
you know, my doctor tells me I'm borderline. Well the
doctor a doctor's gonna tell everybody their borderline. If you're
over forty years old and you're outside of your uh,
you know, your weight thing, and everyone's outside of their
weight thing because those things don't make any of minem
or Meason. So you wouldn't believe how many people I
(11:35):
get calls from throughout my day that are calling my friends.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
That are going charge. I just go after the doctor.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
He said I'm pre diabetic. I was like, what's your
A one seat and the last one said five point eight.
I was like, I was like, dude, you're fifty years old,
you're a male, You're you're not fat, you're anyone seems
under six.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
You're not diabetic. Now you need to watch what you eat.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
But yeah, and so right now, when we kick off
this initiative, you know, we're going to Waycross first, and
then in September we're going to Alonia. We're going to
We're going to Darien the second all right, and Waycross.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
It's the first Tuesday of every month, okay. In Alonia.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Starting in September, it's going to be the first Thursday.
And then starting in October, we're going.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
To Savannah to the big one.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Okay, all right, And I don't know what day that
is yet, I'm working with Georgia Public Health.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
I'm pretty sure it's going to be on a Wednesday.
So basically the first week of the month.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in nine one two for you
all over the state.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
That's the top area code and Georgia.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
By the way, we're gonna be talking about diabetes and
we're gonna be getting this out in front of people.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
And I hope to God, John, I hope. I'm praying
we could save one person. That's it. If we could just.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Save one, get them to a doctor and get them
to get treatment.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
The best part is, Look, when we go to Alonia,
which is in Macintosh County, and we go to Savannah,
We're gonna test blood sugars. We're gonna actually have Georgia
Department of Health and Coast Community out there.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Checking blood sugars for people. And this is free. By
the way, I mean this.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
We literally spent a year raising money to do this.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
This is free.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
You have Ambergreen is your speaker from one of your speakers, right,
she's on your board, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah, No, she's not on our board. She was. She
was our person of the year. Not last year.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
That was Austin Blasky, the football player at North Carolina the.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Year before that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Ambergreen she's a middle school principal of Brantley County Georgia,
all right, and she's gonna be our first keynote in September.
She's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
She's coming on two on Tuesday to speak.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
She can't do the first one because they start school
on that Tuesday and she can't make it that night.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
But the second one she's coming and.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
She will bring the house down. She's a dynamic speaker.
She's amazing. Chris Britt who is getting involved with us.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
He's a dieby.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I don't even know what you would call him, but
he's a diabetes an expert. He's going to be executing
these things with me. He's wrote programs for school systems
throughout America for the teachers and the counselors how to
deal with diabetes. So I'm bringing the a game, dude,
for real. We're bringing it, Bringing it, John, bringing it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
You are August the fifth, it starts off. The kickoff
is August the fifth. Again, that's in Waycross. That's when
Redcross right at seven o'clock at night.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, August the fifth is in Waycross at seven o'clock.
And you could go to the Talkie Foundation online Talkiefoundation
dot org, or you could go to Facebook, or you
could go to Instagram, which is our Instagram page is amazing,
fifty over fifty thousand followers, really diabetics engaged all the
(15:09):
time talking. And you know, it doesn't make sense, John,
You know, you wake up and you do everything the
same day, two days in a row. But one day
you're good, the next day you're not. It doesn't make sense.
And for us people that battle this every day, it's frightening,
especially if you're a caregiver and you've got a small child.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I mean, watching these parents.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Most specifically these diabetic mothers that are raising these infants
as type ones, watching them raise these kids.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Is church. That's the only thing I could say.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It's church, because you know, mom becomes diabetic as well,
even though she doesn't have it right, but she's got
she's got that device going into her bedroom. It's all
on DRED twenty four hours a day. When that little
baby's not right, mama's got to make it right. I
have more respect for a mom of.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
A diabetic than perhaps anybody else in this world. And
I'm not lying when I say that.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I know that's a big statement, but I mean it
because I've seen it.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Did they ever improve or did they ever get I'm
just asking this. I don't know, do they ever get
cured of diabetes or is it the lie? Right? Okay,
it's with you.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Type two, Type two right right, You're not. Type two
is controlled by your weight, your diet, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Type one is that's insulin dependence. Oh really all right,
So that means that your packer is not working at
all right.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So you have to put insulin in you, all right.
When you're a type two diabetic, all right, your packory,
your packers is somewhat working, all right, and so that
could be you know, you could control that by what
you eat, you know, because a lot of people don't
realize this, but there's really no difference in a potato
(17:14):
chip and a candy block because when they go in
your body, they're both turning to sugar immediately, right, right,
So like you know, a really good all right, here
you go. I ordered some way two nights ago because
I've been doing twenty four hour day fast every other day,
(17:35):
all right. So I was coming off my twenty four
hour fast and I was really hungry, and I'd walked
to and a half miles, no kidding.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
In this weather, yeah, in this weather.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
And remember John you know, I'm an old dude.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You're not much older than me.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
But well I feel it sometimes. But anyways, I went
up to Subway because I was hungry. Right, it's by
my house. I live in Shelmon Bluff, and so I
go up to Subway and I got a foot long
steak and cheese, and so, you know, I did my
due diligence. Look, I ate eleven hundred calories. My omnipods
(18:18):
shot me into the insulin.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
And my you know, my numbers didn't move.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And so, but the point I'm trying to make is
is I'm so well maintained that my insulin dependence is
going down, down, down, because.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I walked so much and I'm burning fat.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
These are all the things, John, that we're gonna talk
about at these meetings, right, and then we're gonna bring
in people to talk about things that you could get
at the store and that you probably already have in
your house that you don't know but are good for
you to eat. There's all kinds of things we're gonna
I'm bring it in kidney people with eye doctors and
(19:00):
anybody that has anything to do with diabetes is going
to show up and talk to us. You know, we
have twelve people signed up in Waycross right now.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
We have twelve and we can only.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Do I think they told us we can only.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Have twenty five.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
In the room until we go to the bigger room.
And we're anticipating having to go to the bigger room
because in Pierce where in Brantley County, eighty between eighty
and eighty five percent of the people are pre diabetic
or diabetic, eight and a half out of ten.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
John Man, that's amazing, that's amazing. Well you think about that,
that's just in what the little you mentioned a part
of Georgia you mentioned, think about the whole state of Georgia.
The whole state of Georgia has got to be astronomical.
Will two million? Yeah, probably, No.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
It is two million. That was in two thousand and
that was a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
But you know, there's a lot of really good things happening,
you know, the working with stem selves and there's going
to become a cure. They're going to get a cure
for this. And this is another discussion for a podcast
if I could talk you into it. But you know,
I'm not I question. I saw something the other day.
(20:18):
I saw something about the American Diabetes Association and what
their initiatives are. And it's all about type two diabetes
and eating right right, Look.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Now you have type one, type one.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I'm a type one point five.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I was a type two, but now I'm totally completely
insolent dependent, you know, John, I believe this or not.
And there's a big thing up right now on our
Facebook page about it. Have you ever heard of type
five diabetes?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Never heard of that?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Never, Well, there is such a thing.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
What is it? What is it?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
All right? Type five diabetes is.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
In infancy nutritional values as a small child. You know, babies,
what you're feeding them, and they develop diabetes. Google type
five diabetes.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
It's amazing, all right.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Then there's a lot of which is type two and
type one. There's all these different things. People hear diabetes
and they think it's like cancer, all right, And on
some levels it is because you have lung cancer, you
have prostrate cancer, you have different cancers when diabetes, you
have different diabetes. It's completely different being a type two
(21:39):
diabetic than it is being a type one, completely different.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And you should go. You should go and to these
there's meetings that Chartie is having and find out if
you have it, and find out if someone takes somebody
who know has it with them, but with it to
go to the meeting exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Look, you know, I'm a football person, so I'm out
and about. You know that around benedictine. So I'm out
and about.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I've been engaged by so many people that are like,
all right, my doctors tell my doctor's telling me.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I haven't had the blood work done yet, but my
doctor's telling me. Right.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I've had so many people tell me this now. Granted,
I'm talking about a demographic that's twenty five to six,
no older than that, forty to sixty, right, normal people
that are going to the doctor, all right, what about
the people that don't have health insurance and aren't going
to the doctor?
Speaker 3 (22:34):
What about them? And you know what that percentage is
in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I can't even imagine.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I don't, I don't, I don't know, but I'll find
out now that I asked myself that I guarantee you
more than half the people. I don't know this, I'm
talking out my butt, but I would venture to guess
that more than half the people in Georgia don't have
health insurance and if you don't have.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Health insurance, that means you're not there's no.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Consideration for your people without health insurance, they come down
with diabetic kido acidosis or hypo gloscemia and they're in
the hospital. You know who's paying for that, right. But look,
there's ways out there to go get help. And so
if anybody's out there listening and you need help, you
(23:21):
have questions about diabetes, I need you to get out
and reach out to me.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
And I mean it. You're invited to get a hold
of me.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Get our Facebook pigeons, send me at I check that
there are people that run these things, but I check everything,
and I'm so passionate about this. If you have questions
about diabetes, you are something going on around your diabete,
you need help on some level.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I need you to reach out to us. That's what
we're here for.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
TALKI Foundation. You look them up on Facebook, look them
up on the Internet, and you find out where to
go where they're gonna have meetings. Go right, just go
and get into with them today.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Just come come to the first one.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
All right.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
This isn't gonna be like AA.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Where you know people stand up and although I think
that would be kind of cool to make everyone stand
up and say, hey, I'm Charlie, I'm a diabetic.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
But we're not going to do that. But what we
want to do.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Is we are going to talk and meet everyone that
comes in. I personally am going to shake their hand
because I know what this struggle is, dude, for real, Oh.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
My god, I know, and there's not enough people that
recognize it. And it's very sad.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And somebody out there is listening to me and one
of their best buddies or friends, or their sister or
somebody around them is a diabetic and there's a good
chance that they're gonna end up in the hospital from
it and they don't know they got it. So if
you're hearing this, you're better for it.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Well, thank you so much, Charitte for taking time to
do this, and I wish you all the best with
talking foundation, and what you're doing is really good. It's
really good stuff, So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I think. Okay, well, well you're gonna come to our
five K this.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Year, John, Okay, all right, I'm not gonna run it,
though I can't rune that if I had to.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I wanna talk about that.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I'm not kidding you.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
It's coming in September, Okay, all right, yeah, thanks John,
Thank you, Charlie, appreciate it. That's Charlie Colemen's founder of
Talkie Foundation. To find out more about them and about
these meetings, visit Talkiefoundation dot org. For questions and comments
on today's program, you can email me John Clark at
Georgiannewsnetwork dot com. Thank you for listening. I'll talk to
you next week right here on your favorite local radio
(25:36):
station on Georgia Focus
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The Talkie Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded
by Charlie Comens and dedicated to assisting low income diabetic
patients in Georgia. They're starting with new support groups all
throughout Southeast Georgia. The kickoff meeting will be held on
August the fifth from seven to eight pm in the
Community Room at the Railway Express Agency in downtown way Cross. Today,
(00:32):
our guest on the show is Charlie Comens, founder of
the Talkie Foundation. Well, Charlie, you've got the Talky Foundation,
the Diabetes Foundation. Talk about what you're doing, because you
have some big things coming in August, August of fifth.
You've got a big kickoff.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, we're kicking off in August, August the fifth at
seven pm and Waycross at the rail Depot station. It's
a beautiful thing. It's historical. It's a refurbished railroad station.
So uh, the Talkie Foundation. It's Attila Memorial Hospital out
in Waycross, which is a great hospital system.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
By the way, John, they did great work. You know.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
We got together and we came up with this initiative
and what it is is. We're bringing awareness and education
to South Georgia.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
About diabetes. And you know, you and I have been
friends for a long time, and.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You know you even you even.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Came to our annual event down on jack Wiland a
couple of years ago, so you got to see us, right.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Look, look, we were working to purchase insulin for indigent people.
That was the foundation premise, right, you know, because I
just was so sick with this and I didn't even
know what the heck it was and I found out
and then I found out how expensive it was and
all that, and so our my board of directors, who
(01:59):
are just amazing people from all over the United States,
even though we're a Georgia foundation, but we're just like
looking at each other, going, look, you know, we've made
a change in this insulent persons, or.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
At least they did.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But now, you know, you don't know what's gonna happen
with all these cuts into medicaid.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
You know, you don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
But currently insulin is basically affordable. So we took our
focus off of Curtis V. Cooper in Savannah and giving
them money and you know, trying to help people that
can't afford the insulin to actually bringing education and awareness.
So we spent all of last year raising money so
(02:41):
we could do this.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
To be honest, We've partnered with First Tea.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Of Savannah, which is as I'm sure you're aware, First
He's one of the great golfing organizations in America and
in Chatham County in Savannah, there's sixteen thousand students participating
in that program, which eighty percent of them are minorities.
Now in the state of Georgia, you know, we've talked
(03:07):
about these numbers before. I mean, there's a quarter of
a million people that don't know they have diabetes.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, I can assure you, John, for real, half of
them are not minorities.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, those are normal, you know, normal white folks going
to work every day and they have no idea they
have diabetes. Same way with the black folks, I mean.
And so look, somebody's got to talk about this because
it's an epidemic. And so we have literally focused that
(03:41):
for the last year on bringing education and awareness to
South Georgia, Savannah, Brunswick, darien Waycross, Hoboken, Jessup.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Pierce County, the home of the Bears.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Oh yeah, all right, we're bringing it so we're going
to have monthly meetings and those three places, they're.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Gonna be an hour long. We're gonna bring diabetics together.
We're gonna talk about things.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
We're gonna talk about diabetes because all of us diabetics
have these issues and we all have questions and things
like that.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
We're gonna bring us together.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
And so we're gonna come in, we're gonna talk, We're
gonna have a really good speaker every one of them.
We'll probably have some healthy snacks, and then we're gonna
and then out in Waycross on the fifth.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
That's our kickoff.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So we're really pushing forward to it and we're really
excited about it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Now, do you talk about you you've almost lost your
life many times because of diabetes, and you have a dog.
Talk about your dog. And that's that's why it's called
Talking Foundation, because it was a dog. Once said, your
dog now is with you all the time. Talk about
that dog?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Well, you know, to be honest about it. Yeah, you know,
we evolved. You know, out in front of eight ESPN
radio stations. It was killing me, John, it was killing me,
and I had to make an adjustment, and so I
(05:16):
got out and that's not necessarily the whole reason why,
but that's part of it. And so the foundation was
built inside of that. So it came with great fervor,
built around a large ESPN group, you know of affiliated
radio stations all over Georgia. All right, well that's gone.
(05:40):
The Foundation has gone to another level right now. A
lot of the energy that was put into executing and
managing all of that has gone into the foundation and
my advertising agency. And so Talkie was my dog, and
he was my dog. Before Talkie, I had Nicos and
(06:02):
my company has called Nico's Creative. Before Nicos, I had Timber,
and before Timber, I had Leo the first. So this
goes back years, well not quite forty five years, and
they're all related, they're all the same dog. So but anyways,
I was having terrible diabetic problems.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I was a Type two, not on insulin, and they
tried a new poem. Literally it killed me.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
John I fell out my shower in DKA diabetic keto
acidosis and they had to come and take me to
the hospital and shock me, and Talkie was with me,
and I lived. They didn't think I would live, and
I did. And then I went over to Europe to
visit my family, and I completely fell out over there,
(06:51):
and that's when they diagnosed, you know, the the insulin dependency.
And so the foundation was built because my dog and
now I have Leo.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Here's his pop.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
And you're right, he's staring at me in the back
of the truck right now.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
He goes everywhere I go. I'm all plugged in. I
wear an just free diabetics out there.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I wear an omnipod, and I wear a Freestyle Libra
two plus I managed them manually. My A one C
is six point one. All these devices. So some people say, well,
do you need the doll? You know, I want everyone
to go to Talkie Foundation on Facebook so you could
watch the remarkableness of these animals.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You see it because we're Facebook bread. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
So you know the other day I put that up
because I was getting ready to fall.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I woke up in the.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Morning of my blood sugar was eighty one going down,
and I felt it. You know, you can feel these things, John, and.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I felt it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I checked my blood and and then I didn't
have to check no more because I had Leo sitting
in front of me looking at me.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Wow, he wasn't learning me, he was looking at me.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
It's just about him getting my attention. And so that
thing I put on the Facebook, I talking because it
gives people an opportunity to actually watch these dogs work
and see. It's all driven by scent, you know, it's
all driven by the way they smell and so.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And again, you know, little Leo, when he.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Came out, he was immediately put in front of a
nipple with one of my cotton balls filled with my spite,
and so that's how he had to learn that he
got a reward if he would smell that, all right,
And so he was trained to smell that by a
cotton ball with my spit, so that would go in
front of the nipple. So from the very first time
(08:41):
on his case, day two, he'd have to move that
nipple with that cotton ball with his nose in order
to get that reward, which was the nipple. And that's
how you train these animals. I'm not supposed to talk
about that because I'm a trainer, but that's how they're trained.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You've named the foundation the Talkie Foundation after talking and
you're doing you're doing great things with diabetes and telling
people about it. But I know, first of all, you
talk about a number of people in the state of
Georgia alone who have it and don't know it. Talk
about how you tell people. You want to tell people, Look,
(09:18):
get checked for diabetes. You may have it.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Look, John, this is listen. We're all human beings. We
all know our bodies better than anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Right. I don't care if you have insurance or if
you don't.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I don't care if you're fat or skinny. I don't
care if you're black, white or Asian. I don't care
what you are. But if you notice that you're peeing
a lot, yeah, and you're losing weight, you need to
get checked, all right. So what basically what we do
is we go in like we're starting back to school
exposed now, right, and so we're going to be going
(09:53):
out to you know, these school back together things, and
I take Leo and we set up it's our you know,
our promotional stuff and handing out T shirts and all that.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
But at the end of the.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Day, what we're doing is we're talking to parents about
their kids, and we're talking to parents about their parents,
and we're talking to parents about them. Because nobody is
safe nobody, because our diet for the type two's out
there has been built to make us type two diabetics.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I mean literally, the.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Food companies, everything in this processed food, I mean it
has built us to become diabetics. Everybody. I don't care
who you are. I don't care if you're a marathon trainer.
And when you get into type one diabetes, you know
that's immune deficiency. You know, you can't eat your way
to that. You either have it or you don't unless
(10:53):
something happens to you like me where you lose your
pancreas and you have to become insule independent. That's what
we do, John. We get out in front of people,
and the first thing we do is we ask people
if they know what diabetes is?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Right, do you know what it is? Have you heard
about it? Is anyone in your family diabetic that you
know of? All?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Right? Then the second thing, you know, most people say, well,
you know, my doctor tells me I'm borderline. Well the
doctor a doctor's gonna tell everybody their borderline. If you're
over forty years old and you're outside of your uh,
you know, your weight thing, and everyone's outside of their
weight thing because those things don't make any of minem
or Meason. So you wouldn't believe how many people I
(11:35):
get calls from throughout my day that are calling my friends.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
That are going charge. I just go after the doctor.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
He said I'm pre diabetic. I was like, what's your
A one seat and the last one said five point eight.
I was like, I was like, dude, you're fifty years old,
you're a male, You're you're not fat, you're anyone seems
under six.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
You're not diabetic. Now you need to watch what you eat.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
But yeah, and so right now, when we kick off
this initiative, you know, we're going to Waycross first, and
then in September we're going to Alonia. We're going to
We're going to Darien the second all right, and Waycross.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
It's the first Tuesday of every month, okay. In Alonia.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Starting in September, it's going to be the first Thursday.
And then starting in October, we're going.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
To Savannah to the big one.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Okay, all right, And I don't know what day that
is yet, I'm working with Georgia Public Health.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
I'm pretty sure it's going to be on a Wednesday.
So basically the first week of the month.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in nine one two for you
all over the state.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
That's the top area code and Georgia.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
By the way, we're gonna be talking about diabetes and
we're gonna be getting this out in front of people.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
And I hope to God, John, I hope. I'm praying
we could save one person. That's it. If we could just.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Save one, get them to a doctor and get them
to get treatment.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
The best part is, Look, when we go to Alonia,
which is in Macintosh County, and we go to Savannah,
We're gonna test blood sugars. We're gonna actually have Georgia
Department of Health and Coast Community out there.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Checking blood sugars for people. And this is free. By
the way, I mean this.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
We literally spent a year raising money to do this.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
This is free.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
You have Ambergreen is your speaker from one of your speakers, right,
she's on your board, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah, No, she's not on our board. She was. She
was our person of the year. Not last year.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
That was Austin Blasky, the football player at North Carolina the.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Year before that.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Ambergreen she's a middle school principal of Brantley County Georgia,
all right, and she's gonna be our first keynote in September.
She's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
She's coming on two on Tuesday to speak.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
She can't do the first one because they start school
on that Tuesday and she can't make it that night.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
But the second one she's coming and.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
She will bring the house down. She's a dynamic speaker.
She's amazing. Chris Britt who is getting involved with us.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
He's a dieby.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I don't even know what you would call him, but
he's a diabetes an expert. He's going to be executing
these things with me. He's wrote programs for school systems
throughout America for the teachers and the counselors how to
deal with diabetes. So I'm bringing the a game, dude,
for real. We're bringing it, Bringing it, John, bringing it.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
You are August the fifth, it starts off. The kickoff
is August the fifth. Again, that's in Waycross. That's when
Redcross right at seven o'clock at night.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, August the fifth is in Waycross at seven o'clock.
And you could go to the Talkie Foundation online Talkiefoundation
dot org, or you could go to Facebook, or you
could go to Instagram, which is our Instagram page is amazing,
fifty over fifty thousand followers, really diabetics engaged all the
(15:09):
time talking. And you know, it doesn't make sense, John,
You know, you wake up and you do everything the
same day, two days in a row. But one day
you're good, the next day you're not. It doesn't make sense.
And for us people that battle this every day, it's frightening,
especially if you're a caregiver and you've got a small child.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I mean, watching these parents.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Most specifically these diabetic mothers that are raising these infants
as type ones, watching them raise these kids.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Is church. That's the only thing I could say.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It's church, because you know, mom becomes diabetic as well,
even though she doesn't have it right, but she's got
she's got that device going into her bedroom. It's all
on DRED twenty four hours a day. When that little
baby's not right, mama's got to make it right. I
have more respect for a mom of.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
A diabetic than perhaps anybody else in this world. And
I'm not lying when I say that.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I know that's a big statement, but I mean it
because I've seen it.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Did they ever improve or did they ever get I'm
just asking this. I don't know, do they ever get
cured of diabetes or is it the lie? Right? Okay,
it's with you.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Type two, Type two right right, You're not. Type two
is controlled by your weight, your diet, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Type one is that's insulin dependence. Oh really all right,
So that means that your packer is not working at
all right.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So you have to put insulin in you, all right.
When you're a type two diabetic, all right, your packory,
your packers is somewhat working, all right, and so that
could be you know, you could control that by what
you eat, you know, because a lot of people don't
realize this, but there's really no difference in a potato
(17:14):
chip and a candy block because when they go in
your body, they're both turning to sugar immediately, right, right,
So like you know, a really good all right, here
you go. I ordered some way two nights ago because
I've been doing twenty four hour day fast every other day,
(17:35):
all right. So I was coming off my twenty four
hour fast and I was really hungry, and I'd walked
to and a half miles, no kidding.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
In this weather, yeah, in this weather.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
And remember John you know, I'm an old dude.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You're not much older than me.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
But well I feel it sometimes. But anyways, I went
up to Subway because I was hungry. Right, it's by
my house. I live in Shelmon Bluff, and so I
go up to Subway and I got a foot long
steak and cheese, and so, you know, I did my
due diligence. Look, I ate eleven hundred calories. My omnipods
(18:18):
shot me into the insulin.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
And my you know, my numbers didn't move.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And so, but the point I'm trying to make is
is I'm so well maintained that my insulin dependence is
going down, down, down, because.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I walked so much and I'm burning fat.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
These are all the things, John, that we're gonna talk
about at these meetings, right, and then we're gonna bring
in people to talk about things that you could get
at the store and that you probably already have in
your house that you don't know but are good for
you to eat. There's all kinds of things we're gonna
I'm bring it in kidney people with eye doctors and
(19:00):
anybody that has anything to do with diabetes is going
to show up and talk to us. You know, we
have twelve people signed up in Waycross right now.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
We have twelve and we can only.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Do I think they told us we can only.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Have twenty five.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
In the room until we go to the bigger room.
And we're anticipating having to go to the bigger room
because in Pierce where in Brantley County, eighty between eighty
and eighty five percent of the people are pre diabetic
or diabetic, eight and a half out of ten.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
John Man, that's amazing, that's amazing. Well you think about that,
that's just in what the little you mentioned a part
of Georgia you mentioned, think about the whole state of Georgia.
The whole state of Georgia has got to be astronomical.
Will two million? Yeah, probably, No.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
It is two million. That was in two thousand and
that was a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
But you know, there's a lot of really good things happening,
you know, the working with stem selves and there's going
to become a cure. They're going to get a cure
for this. And this is another discussion for a podcast
if I could talk you into it. But you know,
I'm not I question. I saw something the other day.
(20:18):
I saw something about the American Diabetes Association and what
their initiatives are. And it's all about type two diabetes
and eating right right, Look.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Now you have type one, type one.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I'm a type one point five.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I was a type two, but now I'm totally completely
insolent dependent, you know, John, I believe this or not.
And there's a big thing up right now on our
Facebook page about it. Have you ever heard of type
five diabetes?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Never heard of that?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Never, Well, there is such a thing.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
What is it? What is it?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
All right? Type five diabetes is.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
In infancy nutritional values as a small child. You know, babies,
what you're feeding them, and they develop diabetes. Google type
five diabetes.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
It's amazing, all right.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Then there's a lot of which is type two and
type one. There's all these different things. People hear diabetes
and they think it's like cancer, all right, And on
some levels it is because you have lung cancer, you
have prostrate cancer, you have different cancers when diabetes, you
have different diabetes. It's completely different being a type two
(21:39):
diabetic than it is being a type one, completely different.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And you should go. You should go and to these
there's meetings that Chartie is having and find out if
you have it, and find out if someone takes somebody
who know has it with them, but with it to
go to the meeting exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Look, you know, I'm a football person, so I'm out
and about. You know that around benedictine. So I'm out
and about.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I've been engaged by so many people that are like,
all right, my doctors tell my doctor's telling me.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I haven't had the blood work done yet, but my
doctor's telling me. Right.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I've had so many people tell me this now. Granted,
I'm talking about a demographic that's twenty five to six,
no older than that, forty to sixty, right, normal people
that are going to the doctor, all right, what about
the people that don't have health insurance and aren't going
to the doctor?
Speaker 3 (22:34):
What about them? And you know what that percentage is
in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I can't even imagine.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I don't, I don't, I don't know, but I'll find
out now that I asked myself that I guarantee you
more than half the people. I don't know this, I'm
talking out my butt, but I would venture to guess
that more than half the people in Georgia don't have
health insurance and if you don't have.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Health insurance, that means you're not there's no.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Consideration for your people without health insurance, they come down
with diabetic kido acidosis or hypo gloscemia and they're in
the hospital. You know who's paying for that, right. But look,
there's ways out there to go get help. And so
if anybody's out there listening and you need help, you
(23:21):
have questions about diabetes, I need you to get out
and reach out to me.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
And I mean it. You're invited to get a hold
of me.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Get our Facebook pigeons, send me at I check that
there are people that run these things, but I check everything,
and I'm so passionate about this. If you have questions
about diabetes, you are something going on around your diabete,
you need help on some level.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I need you to reach out to us. That's what
we're here for.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
TALKI Foundation. You look them up on Facebook, look them
up on the Internet, and you find out where to
go where they're gonna have meetings. Go right, just go
and get into with them today.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Just come come to the first one.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
All right.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
This isn't gonna be like AA.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Where you know people stand up and although I think
that would be kind of cool to make everyone stand
up and say, hey, I'm Charlie, I'm a diabetic.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
But we're not going to do that. But what we
want to do.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Is we are going to talk and meet everyone that
comes in. I personally am going to shake their hand
because I know what this struggle is, dude, for real, Oh.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
My god, I know, and there's not enough people that
recognize it. And it's very sad.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And somebody out there is listening to me and one
of their best buddies or friends, or their sister or
somebody around them is a diabetic and there's a good
chance that they're gonna end up in the hospital from
it and they don't know they got it. So if
you're hearing this, you're better for it.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Well, thank you so much, Charitte for taking time to
do this, and I wish you all the best with
talking foundation, and what you're doing is really good. It's
really good stuff, So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I think. Okay, well, well you're gonna come to our
five K this.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Year, John, Okay, all right, I'm not gonna run it,
though I can't rune that if I had to.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
I wanna talk about that.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
I'm not kidding you.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
It's coming in September, Okay, all right, yeah, thanks John,
Thank you, Charlie, appreciate it. That's Charlie Colemen's founder of
Talkie Foundation. To find out more about them and about
these meetings, visit Talkiefoundation dot org. For questions and comments
on today's program, you can email me John Clark at
Georgiannewsnetwork dot com. Thank you for listening. I'll talk to
you next week right here on your favorite local radio
(25:36):
station on Georgia Focus
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