There is no stigma when we are all in the same situation and the exception is rapidly becoming good health. Diabetes does not have to define you but if it must, use it for good..

Leonard Thompson, at age 14, was the first person injected with insulin in 1922 and this prevented his imminent death. At the time, insulin was a hormone isolated from the pancreas of dogs by Dr. Banting, who subsequently won a Nobel Prize for his work, and his medical student, Charles Best. Insulin was purified by the assistance of Professor Mc Leod of Toronto University and Biochemist J.B. Collip. Present day insulin used recombinant DNA technology, and continues to save the lives of persons with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, for which oral medications are insufficient. Leonard Thompson died of pneumonia in 1935 at age 27.

Part 2

‘It’s not what you have its how you deal with it.’

Members of the Medalist Study at Joslin Diabetes Centre, Boston, US, are fifty-year survivors of type 1 diabetes, which is caused by autoimmune destruction of the beta cells that produce insulin. In spite of a paucity of available medications and monitoring devices so many years ago, these survivors had low overall rates of complications, and graciously agreed to be part of the research study to determine which genetic factors are likely to decrease rates of complications.

Brothers Robert and Gerald Cleveland have lived with diabetes  for over seventy years. They are grateful to have had caring family members and note that having diabetes encourages a life-long health focus, early coping and maturity, and empathy for others.