A local woman recently joined a Virginia delegation in Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress to support diabetes education and prevention programs.

Michelle Harmon, who lives in Capron but works in Virginia Beach and covers the entire Hampton Roads area in her job as a pharmacist with Farm Fresh, currently serves as the president of the Community Leader Board for the American Diabetes Association.

“Every two years, they go to Congress and they bring in a group of advocates to speak to members of Congress,” Harmon said.

In her role as a pharmacist, she gets the chance to see the demographics of the area she serves, Harmon said. More than 10 percent of people in Western Tidewater had diabetes during a 2005-2009 study.

The amateur lobbyists asked legislators to consider supporting four programs working against diabetes.

They asked for more than $2 billion to go toward the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for diabetes research; about $140 million toward the Centers for Disease Control’s Division of Diabetes Translation, which seeks to “translate” science into daily practice; about $20 million for the National Diabetes Prevention Program; and to renew the Special Diabetes Program for three years.

Harmon said she sees firsthand the importance of preventing diabetes, or at least managing it effectively.

“The cost associated with treating someone with diabetes, and the complications, if we could prevent diabetes before it started or do better with diabetes management and education, we could save so much more money than paying for the complications of diabetes,” she said.

The medical expenses for a diabetic are about double those for someone who isn’t diabetic, Harmon said. In Virginia alone, medical care for diabetics reached $6.2 billion in 2012.

“That’s where I come in as a pharmacist,” Harmon said. “I would much rather treat and educate someone before they get the disease than after.”

Harmon said Virginia’s legislators were impressed by the group from the American Diabetes Association.

“Virginia had a great, very dynamic group,” she said. “We were well represented.”

Harmon will also be participating in next month’s Hampton Roads Tour de Cure, a fundraising ride that takes place in Suffolk.

The 2015 Hampton Roads Tour de Cure will take place on April 25, beginning and ending at King’s Fork High School. Riders can choose their route — options of 10, 25, 65 or 100 miles are available.

There is a $25 registration fee and a $200 fundraising minimum. The fundraising goal is $450,000, and so far about $130,000 has been raised.

Money raised is used for diabetes education, awareness, research and advocacy.

For more information about the Tour de Cure, visit www.diabetes.org/hamptonroadsvatour.