Diagnosis pathways and timescales - uk

[luthien]

If you have a family member whom has told you they've been diagnosed with diabetes how long ago would the investigations have started?

Just interested because this is my mother in law (doesn't live with us) but has mentioned she was diagnosed January this year, however we visited in December but there was no mention of tests (I get some people don't like mentioning stuff, and that's okay) but surely if there was investigations going on then she would have been suggested to have changed her diet / done something different? I'm asking because when we visited in December we all went out to a carvery, had dessert, she'd bought and eaten 4 danish pastries (that evening) and "salad" the next day consisted of sausage rolls, bread and butter, processed breaded chicken fillet thing. All these which we don't usually eat as we're healthy, gluten and dairy free (but put those choices aside for her as we're only visiting for a few days) - that's pretty normal food for them though.

I'm interested in other peoples diagnosis pathways because having been on the pre-diabetes list years ago (fine after that blip, all normal now). Just to have that confirmed consisted of a fasting blood glucose test (I have yearly full bloods), a HBA1C a few weeks later, repeated again three months later(to rule out outlier results) - pre-diabetes result, then a leaflet on diabetes with a repeat blood test in 3 months - which was all normal. I just not exercised my usual amount as I was post op for an ongoing condition so upping the exercise helped. That all took about 6 months in total, so if someone were diagnosed with diabetes; we hadn't seen any changes in diet / exercise or mentality when we visited in December compared with when we've previously visited and over the years. I have relatives (grandparents generation) diagnosed with diabetes and two born with it, so I know what goes into managing diet / exercise hence why we're eating healthy and low processed foods - which yes everyone should but it's not easy.

What are the diagnosis pathways and timescales (approx) - based in the UK. My hubby is of course worried as it's his mother and he wants to have the conversation about if she ignores the dietitian / nurses advice he'll loose his mother early, she's only 60. All phone conversations recently have mentioned having takeaway food, processed food, cake, parties, so naturally he's concerned.