November is National Diabetes Awareness Month (#NDAM). It’s used as a time to educate and advocate for people with all types of diabetes. The biggest day of the month is November 14 which is World Diabetes Day. November 14 was chosen because it’s the birthday of Frederick Banting who discovered insulin in 1921. Before that T1 diabetes was a death sentence. With modern care, most T1 diabetics have a normal life expectancy.
An account of that day, “Children dying from [T1 diabetes] were kept in large wards, often with 50 or more patients in a ward, mostly comatose. Grieving family members were often in attendance, awaiting the (until then, inevitable) death.
In one of medicine’s more dramatic moments Banting, Best, and Collip went from bed to bed, injecting an entire ward with the new purified [insulin]. Before they had reached the last dying child, the first few were awakening from their coma, to the joyous exclamations of their families.â€
Blue is the color of diabetes awareness and support. On November 14, wear blue in support of the diabetics in your life! If you do wear blue, take a picture and tag me on Instagram @cria_t1d. Please help me continue to spread awareness of this disease and support the people who live with it every day.
