October - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Juvenile Diabetes is now known more accurately as Type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition.  For reasons we don’t yet fully understand, your immune system, which is meant to protect you from foreign bodies, such as viruses and bacteria, mistakenly attacks and destroys the beta cells in your pancreas that produce insulin.  You cannot prevent it by adopting a healthy diet, exercising regularly, or living a healthy lifestyle. There is currently no known cure.  But JDRF is committed to funding research that will find a cure.  JDRF is the type 1 diabetes charity, improving lives until we find a cure.  We’re totally focused on type 1 diabetes, and are run by people with type 1, for people with type 1.

We fund research to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes. We provide information for children, adults and parents living with the condition, at all stages from diagnosis and beyond. We give a voice to people with type 1 diabetes and campaign for increased focus on, and funding for, research to find the cure.

JDRF is a global organisation working towards the cure.  Internationally, we are the world’s leading charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research.  We work with academia, industry and governments to make sure that the research we fund has the greatest possible impact on the lives of people with type 1 now and in the future.  JDRF has invested £1 billion in funding critical research to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes and its complications.

For more than four decades we have been at the forefront of developments, finding new ways to treat type 1, and progressing towards being able to halt, reverse and prevent it. By seeking out, assessing and monitoring the best research in the world, no matter where it is, we drive the breakthroughs that improve treatment and that will ultimately cure type 1 diabetes.

Because we have people with type 1 diabetes at the heart of our organisation, we know that living with type 1 makes life just that bit tougher, and we think that people with type 1 don’t get a fair deal. That’s why, as well as funding research, we also give a voice to people with type 1. We campaign for greater research funding and for access to the treatments and technologies to make their life easier today. We also work to differentiate type 1 from type 2 diabetes and provide information for all stages of living with type 1 – from diagnosis and beyond.

Obviously, because of the nature of its work, this is not a local charity.  However, we are supporting it this month because of its Highbury connection in the impact this condition has had on the Lacey family.

See the website for JDRF