Taking the fight to diabetes
The “Chance of a Lifetime” gala benefitting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation always can be summed up into one word: enormous.
To wit: the 31st annual event Saturday drew more than 3,000 guests to McCormick Place’s sprawling Lakeside Ballroom, featured big-time entertainment by Hall & Oates and raised a whopping $3.25 million — a record for the organization. One big reason: JDRF officials say Type 1 diabetes affects 14 million Americans.
Partygoers — many with their little ones in tow — began the evening perusing the extensive silent auction at the family-friendly event. Boasting more than 650 packages, the auction included a weeklong trip to Provence, France, with lux accommodations and in-demand sports memorabilia such as a Patrick Kane autographed jersey.
Following dinner of beef tenderloin and chicken breast, guests were directed into the Arie Crown Theater for the lengthy program filled with emotional videos and serious fund-raising emceed by WMAQ-Channel 5 anchors Allison Rosati and Rob Stafford. Newly appointed JDRF President and CEO Jeffrey Brewer, along with board president Rich Poulton, spoke briefly and remembered former Chicago Cub and longtime JDRF champion Ron Santo with a moment of silence for his recent death from complications of Type 1 diabetes. “Ron was a tireless fighter for JDRF,” Poulton explained, “and over the course of three decades, he helped to raise over $60 million for the organization.”
The evening’s Fund-a-Cure campaign was dedicated to Santo, and attendees reached deep into their pockets to donate. Some of the most generous: Mesirow Financial CEO Jim Tyree (who taped a video) and his wife, Eve, who gave $50,000, and Trish and Glenn Tullman (CEO of Allscripts), who pledged $100,000 to JDRF’s Artificial Pancreas project.
As a rocking wrap-up to the event (chaired by Karen Case), longtime pop duo Daryl Hall and John Oates performed hits spanning more than three decades, including “Maneater,” “Kiss on My List” and “Out of Touch.”
Diabetes risk to pregnant women greater in Pacfic regions
A study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that diabetes in pregnancy is linked to poorer outcomes for mothers and babies.
Mothers born in high-diabetes-risk regions, such as Polynesia, are more likely to have diabetes in pregnancy than mothers born in Australia.
The disease can cause a number of complications during pregnancy, labour and delivery and it’s also been linked to stillbirths.
Gestational diabetes can develop during pregnancy even when a woman has no prior history of the disease.
Dr Glynis Ross from Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney says both types of diabetes can cause complications.
22 Mena countries sign diabetes declaration
TWENTY-two countries from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) as well as five international organisations have forged a pact to fight diabetes and other non-communicable diseases linked to it.
The pact is now known as the “Dubai Declaration on Diabetes and Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases in the Middle East and North Africa Region.”
It is a result of the two-day “Mena Diabetes Leadership Forum” which concluded on Monday afternoon, part of the five-day “Dubai 6th International Conference on Medical Sciences,” hosted by the UAE Ministry of Health and under the auspices of the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences.
The October 2010 Novo Nordisk regional research study on the prevalence and seriousness of diabetes, was conducted using 3,000 respondents from 22 signatory-countries including the UAE, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.
The five international organisations are the World Health Organisation, World Diabetes Foundation, International Diabetes Federation (IDF), and World Bank, including the Health Ministers’ Council for the Gulf Cooperation Council States.
UAE Health Minister Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim urged all of the signatories to adopt and implement the agreement: “Addressing this pandemic is urgent and important. Non-communicable diseases like diabetes will be a burden on the economies in the region.”
Saying in his speech on Sunday afternoon that “diabetes knows no borders nor boundaries” therefore everyone must address this issue as it has affected 300 million in the world. Reaffirming the UAE’s commitment to agreements stipulated in the United Nations Resolution on Diabetes, the Riyadh Declaration, and the Gulf Executive Plan for Diabetes Control,Al Qassim on Monday said: “Diabetes and other non-communicable diseases impose huge indirect costs on the economy, such as lost productivity among people of working age, premature retirement and costs of family members giving up employment to care for relatives.”
Denmark Crown Prince Frederick Andre Henrik Christian who has been always been involved humanitarian work, said the forum “is just the beginning” and “the challenge” is for the realization of the inputs gathered from the 550 participants.
He said Denmark has been battling diabetes for many years and through preventive measures, it has been proven that this could be won, such that the dim future of diabetics could be reversed.
There are three important issues from the Dubai Declaration.
These are: that all Mena countries be represented and take an active role in the Moscow June 2011 United Nations International Conference on Non-Communicable Diseases and the New York September 2011 UN Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases so that regional concerns may be heard in this international platform which will hopefully lead to more concrete actions and results, with the help of the international community as well as provide comprehensive care to diabetics including: encouraging diabetics to lead a normal life; and the introduction of preventive measures such as healthier living which eradicates diabetes and its related NCDs.
On the need for active Mena participation in the global arena, IDF chief executive officer Ann Keeling has also been calling for concerted action for the reduction of tobacco and alcohol consumption, since this is also linked to diabetes and other NCDs: “I urge you to have your heads of government to attend the summit because it is better that they would be talking about this on the table,” she said.
Speakers at the two-day forum said diabetes and other NCDs could at least be minimized.
This, however calls for everyone, specifically families and individuals, to be pro-active in keeping themselves healthy.
Former United States President Bill Clinton, advocating the fight against diabetes since 2004, mentioned at the forum on Sunday: “People do want to live. They do not want to shorten their lives. They want their children to live a long life.”
