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VOLUME 7 NUMBER 2 • JUNE 2010
83
SA JOURNAL OF DIABETES & VASCULAR DISEASE
Keep and Copy Series
NO CHILD SHOULD DIE FROM DIABETES
‘Life for a Child’ manager visits Lilly South Africa
to share growing success of support programme
Dr Graham Ogle, programme manager for the International Diabetes Fed-
eration’s Life for a Child programme, visited Lilly’s Johannesburg head
office in April to report on the progress being made helping children with
diabetes globally, and to thank Lilly for their support.
The Life for a Child programme was established in 2001 by the Inter-
national Diabetes Federation (IDF), with support from Diabetes Australia
and HOPE worldwide.
1
This sustainable support programme helps chil-
dren with diabetes in developing countries and is currently supporting
diabetes services in over 25 countries, 11 of which are in Africa.
2
Life for a Child offers assistance to the most needy children at sup-
ported diabetes centres, including the provision of sufficient insulin and
syringes, blood glucose monitoring, appropriate clinical care and diabetes
education in countries where governments do not supply these services
free of charge.
3
Although it has been nearly 90 years since life-saving diabetes medi-
cation became available, insulin is still not reaching many of the world’s
most vulnerable patients – children with type 1 diabetes. ‘No child should
die from diabetes, yet many still do. All children with diabetes deserve the
best healthcare possible, and the chance to live a full and healthy life. In
many developing countries, the average life expectancy of children with
diabetes is unknown due to a lack of awareness, education and evidence.
In some countries, there are few, if any, long-term survivors of type 1
diabetes’, explains Dr Ogle.
Lilly, a global leader in diabetes care for over 80 years, has been in-
volved in the Life for a Child programme for some time, initially through
the adoption of employee fundraising efforts to contribute to the pro-
gramme. Through this, Lilly employees have helped provide insulin, sup-
plies and diabetes education and care to hundreds of children in develop-
ing nations.
4
It was due to this support that Life for a Child was able to
start assisting in Africa.
More recently, in 2008, Lilly committed to donating more than 800
000 vials of insulin to the programme. This donation is the biggest medi-
cine donation ever made by Lilly and will eventually provide life-saving
medication to as many as 24 000 who currently have no access to dia-
betes treatment.
5
‘The number of children being assisted through Life
for a Child has rapidly increased over the last 12 months, due largely to
this donation of insulin by Lilly’, said Dr Ogle. Around 3 500 children are
now supported, and this will grow to around 9 000 by the end of 2010.
‘We are now urgently searching for companies to provide large-scale
inexpensive or free test strips to further assist patients globally.’
Johannesburg is also an important hub for Life for a Child as most of the
insulin and other provisions donated to many African and Asian countries
are distributed from there.While in South Africa, Dr Ogle also met with UTi
Pharma, which is responsible for the logistics and transport of supplies.
A diagnosis of type 1 diabetes for any child in any country can be
devastating, but more so for children in developing countries. The full
cost of complete management for a child with type 1 diabetes (who re-
quire insulin to stay alive) in most third-world countries is more than they
can afford. In fact, the cost of insulin, syringes and testing strips alone
exceeds the annual income of many poor families in these countries.
The cost of full care for a patient with type 1 diabetes can be as much
as US $500 to $700 a year. Furthermore, the IDF estimates that 64%
of the world’s children under the age of 15 with type 1 diabetes live in
low-income countries.
2
‘We are proud to be associated with Life for a Child and we are in-
spired by the progress being made by this programme in caring for the
most needy, helping them to stay alive and improving their quality of life’,
said Jacques Blaauw, managing director for Lilly South Africa.
Contact Life for a Child on
References
Life for a Child. The program
1.
.
Website accessed 15 April 2010.
Ogle G. Life for a Child. Presentation – 15 April 2010.
2.
Life for a Child. Press release 18 September 2007
3.
. Web-
site accessed 15 April 2010.
Lilly’s commitment to Life for a Child. Sponsors (
4.
eli-lilly). Website accessed 21 April 2010.
Lilly makes insulin donation to International Diabetes Federation’s Life For a Child
5.
program. 13 November 2008
.
php). Website accessed 21 April 2010.
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