We talked to some great people on World Diabetes Day, here are the interviews in case you’ve missed them:
Kerri Morrone writes at Six Until Me and has been living with Type 1 Diabetes since she was 6. She talks about the challenges of living with diabetes, how she manages her daily life, and how she’s finding community online.
Dr Brian Rodrigues is a researcher at UBC. He does a great job explaining what Sir Frederick Banting did with the discovery of insulin and how his research is helping people live longer lives with diabetes.
Sandy Struss is a motivational speaker and has been living with Type 1 Diabetes since she was 17. She tells us of the day she was diagnosed and how having an insulin pump gives her hope.
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on November 12, 2008.
Not everything you find on Google can lift your spirits. If the doctor gives you a diagnosis, or if you feel funny symptoms, “Dr Google” is often the first place we turn for a deeper explanation - and it’s not always good news.
It was that way for Kerri Morrone when she turned to the search engine to look for more information about diabetes.
“This whole list of reasons why I was going to die came up,” she laments about her first searches on the disease just 4 years ago. “It was like this depressing laundry list.”
“There has to be a lot of people living with it, not just dying from it,” she thought. “I wanted to find those people, and I couldn’t and it made me crazy.”
So to bring something positive to the table, she started writing her blog, SixUntilMe (referring to the age when she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes).
“I started a blog about what real life with diabetes was like and other people found me. So I wasn’t the only one looking.”
As many businesses turn to social networks to boost sales and build brands, Manny Hernandez is using the model to build TuDiabetes, an online community for diabetics that borrows from spanish for it’s title (trans: your diabetes).
“Towards the end of 2006, a thought started brewing in my head: the idea of making Social Networks work for things beyond making friends and socializing,” says Manny. “I wondered how I could put Social Networking to the service of a higher cause. I had to get a Social Network for people with diabetes going.”
These kinds of communities are vital for people living with challenges.
When Kerri was younger, she’d go to diabetes camps where other children spoke her language, understood her needs and dealt with the same problems. As she got older and went to college and entered the workforce, people who understood and could support started to dwindle.
“I felt like I was the only diabetic within miles and had no connection with other people who got it,” Kerri remembers. But with the connections she has made through her blogging, the mood changes.
“Yes, I’m a part of a community! These people get it!” she cheers.
Scott Johnson is a columnist at dLife, and has called TuDiabetes: “MySpace on insulin.”
“It is my hope that people who have all types of diabetes, newly diagnosed and veterans alike, moms with gestational diabetes as well as parents of children with diabetes, come on board and engage in a fruitful exchange using all the media that the social network technology puts at our disposal,” writes Manny.
The Province of British Columbia has announced it will fund insulin pumps for eligible children with Type 1 diabetes.
“Coping with Type 1 diabetes can be stressful for young children and their families. Providing insulin pumps can help alleviate that stress for BC kids and ensure they grow up to be healthy adults,” said Premier Campbell. “Providing insulin pumps is another tool for parents and physicians to manage the disease, so our children can live happy, healthy and productive lives.”
In addition the Province will now cover the cost of insulin pump reservoirs for patients of all ages who use insulin pumps to manage their diabetes. Reservoirs are disposable, and on average, must be changed every three days. Expanding their coverage to include reservoirs will save patients with Type 1 diabetes up to $700 annually.
Gordon Campbell’s announcement immediately brought shrieks of glee from the Twittersphere.
After I posted the news on Twitter, Adjoa said “Oh my God, really? Insulin pump funding? I screamed at my desk when I read your Twitt.” When I confirmed the news minutes later, she was still smiling “YES! that will go a long way for a lot of families. Hopefully adults soon - cute kids do grow up (Smiling & batting eyes),” she wrote.
Here’s video of the announcement at Bayview Elementary School.
I dont have diabetes. I dont really “know” anyone with diabetes. However, ever since agreeing to be a part of Team Diabetes Easter Island, I’ve committed myself to learning more about it, the people living with it, and how we can stop it.
Here’s an explanation of diabetes with some help from wikipedia.
Diabetes is a syndrome of disordered metabolism, usually due to a combination of hereditary and environmental causes, resulting in abnormally high blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia).
Blood glucose levels are controlled by a complex interaction of multiple chemicals and hormones in the body, including the hormone insulin made in the pancreas. Diabetes refers to the group of diseases that lead to high blood glucose levels due to defects in either insulin secretion or insulin action.
Diabetes develops due to a diminished production of insulin (in type 1) or resistance to its effects (in type 2 and gestational). Both lead to hyperglycaemia, which largely causes the acute signs of diabetes: excessive urine production, resulting compensatory thirst and increased fluid intake, blurred vision, unexplained weight loss, lethargy, and changes in energy metabolism.
All forms of diabetes have been treatable since insulin became medically available in 1921, but there is no cure. The injections by a syringe, insulin pump, or insulin pen deliver insulin, which is a basic treatment of type 1 diabetes. Type 2 is managed with a combination of dietary treatment, medications and insulin supplementation.
It’s the discovering of insulin in 1921 that’s so important. Sir Frederick Banting, and his assistant, Dr Charles Best (both Canadians) are reponsible for the discovery of insulin. Today, November 14 (World Diabetes Day) is also Banting’s birthday.
This was hailed as one of the most significant advances in medicine at the time. Insulin was not only discovered, but put into mass production in a matter of months. Hence, almost immediately it began to extend the lives of millions of people worldwide who suffered from the endocrine disease diabetes mellitus that could not be treated and had a very poor prognosis. People who suffered from problems with fat and protein metabolism, leading to blindness and then death only had a short time after the onset of the illness.
In 1923 Banting received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Banting shared the award money with Best. The Canadian government gave him a lifetime to work on his research. In 1934 King George V bestowed a knighthood on him, making him Sir Frederick Banting.
I was on Urban Rush with Michael Eckford and Fiona Forbes this week to discuss World Diabetes Day, what it means to have diabetes and my efforts to run a couple marathons next year with Team Diabetes.
About 4min in, Fiona brings up LA Weight Loss and they split screen an image of me from this week with one from my last UR appearance in June. That’s what 30 pounds looks like.
This afternoon, LA Weight Loss will make a donation to Team Diabetes, I can’t wait.
World Diabetes Day is a birthday celebration on a global scale. It was created to raise awareness of the diabetes epidemic, which now affects 246 million people and their families around the world. November 14 is also the birthday of Canadian Sir Frederick G. Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin.
The theme for this year is to “shine a light” on diabetes. More than 900 monuments around the world will be bathed in blue light tonight, including the sails at Canada Place. Over the noon hour (from 11a - 1p) there will be a Hoola Hoop event on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Granville Island Hotel is hosting a Blue-La Hoop challenge with the BC Pediatric Diabetes workshop.
World Diabetes Day is an action-oriented campaign in support of people affected by diabetes around the world. The campaign is inspired by issues of paramount importance to people with diabetes and their families.
Whatever you are doing on World Diabetes Day, take just a moment to consider the facts behind the campaign:
Every 10 seconds a person dies from diabetes-related causes.
Every 10 seconds two people develop diabetes.
Over 250 million people live with diabetes worldwide. In 2025, this figure will reach 380 million.
Over 500,000 children under age 15 worldwide live with type 1 diabetes.
More than 200 children a day develop type 1 diabetes.
In developing countries, close to 75,000 children live with diabetes in desperate circumstances.
Type 1 diabetes is increasing fastest in pre-school children, at a rate of 5% each year.
Type 2 diabetes has been reported in children as young as eight.
Type 2 diabetes affects children in both developed and developing countries.
Diabetes has spent too long in the shadows. Despite the enormity and severity of the pandemic, the disease is often overlooked by politicians, misunderstood by the mass media and shunned by the major donors. As a result, it has flown in under the radar. Yet the global diabetes community refuses to let the world ignore diabetes. Today, diabetes stakeholders everywhere have united to bring diabetes to light.
All the money from these auctions goes to Team Diabetes… so start bidding!!!:
95CRAVE WORLD DIABETES DAY AUCTION: CONCERTS FOR A YEAR
You hear us giving away tickets on the radio - Madonna, Janet Jackson, Katy Perry, BSB, Celine Dion, NKOTB etc When we give away concert tickets on the radio - we’ll save a pair for you! (Estimated value at least $2500.00)
95CRAVE WORLD DIABETES DAY AUCTION: MOVIES FOR A YEAR:
Bid on this package of Crave Movie Premieres for a Year. We do at least one per month, so you and a guest will attend a minimum of 12 - and maybe more - films.
95CRAVE WORLD DIABETES DAY AUCTION: GIFT CARD BASKET:
$100 Pacific Boarder, $50 at Anduccis Restaurant, $100 at Purdys, US$100 at Prime Outlets in Burlington, $250 at Along Comes a Baby, $250 Cardio Core Bootcamp, 2 Bottles of Little Penguin Merlot, 2 Bottles of Little Penguin Chardonnay, 2 Bottles of Penfolds Rawson’s Retreat Shiraz Cabernet (Estimated value: $1000)
95Crave is firmly behind the effort to raise awareness AND funds for those living with diabetes.
The auctions start this afternoon at 5p and run for 24hrs.
Go and have a sneak peek at what’s up for grabs and then get ready to bid tonight and tomorrow.
95CRAVE WORLD DIABETES DAY AUCTION: CONCERTS FOR A YEAR
You hear us giving away tickets on the radio - Madonna, Janet Jackson, Katy Perry, BSB, Celine Dion, NKOTB etc When we give away concert tickets on the radio - we’ll save a pair for you! (Estimated value at least $2500.00)
95CRAVE WORLD DIABETES DAY AUCTION: MOVIES FOR A YEAR:
Bid on this package of Crave Movie Premieres for a Year. We do at least one per month, so you and a guest will attend a minimum of 12 - and maybe more - films.
95CRAVE WORLD DIABETES DAY AUCTION: GIFT CARD BASKET:
$100 Pacific Boarder, $50 at Anduccis Restaurant, $100 at Purdys, US$100 at Prime Outlets in Burlington, $250 at Along Comes a Baby, $250 Cardio Core Bootcamp, 2 Bottles of Little Penguin Merlot, 2 Bottles of Little Penguin Chardonnay, 2 Bottles of Penfolds Rawson’s Retreat Shiraz Cabernet (Estimated value: $1000)
Me? I’ll be on Urban Rush today hoola hooping with Mike and Fiona. On Friday, I’ll be chatting it up on the radio all afternoon long interviewing ambassadors, inspirers, and researchers.
I’ll also be auctioning off Canucks v Leafs tickets, a year’s worth of Crave Concerts and more!
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on 
It was that way for 
As many businesses turn to social networks to boost sales and build brands, Manny Hernandez is using the model to build 
This was hailed as one of the most significant advances in medicine at the time. Insulin was not only discovered, but put into mass production in a matter of months. Hence, almost immediately it began to extend the lives of millions of people worldwide who suffered from the endocrine disease diabetes mellitus that could not be treated and had a very poor prognosis. People who suffered from problems with fat and protein metabolism, leading to blindness and then death only had a short time after the onset of the illness. 
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