Today is World Diabetes Day, recognized every November 14 in honour of Sir Frederick Banting – one of the doctors who discovered insulin back in 1921 at the University of Toronto.
Before the discovery of insulin, a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes was a death sentence with those diagnosed – usually children and teens – only given a few months to live under a strict diet.
Banting led a team comprised of Charles Best, James Collip and J.J.R. Macleod in the discovery. Banting and Macleod were later recognized with the Nobel Prize in Medicine and ended up splitting the prize with Best and Collip.
Teddy Ryder, one of Frederick Banting’s first patients, before and after treatment of insulin for type 1 diabetes (Banting House National Historic Site)
The patent for insulin was sold for $1, with Banting famously quoted saying “insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.”
Omnipod insulin pump pictured alongside a vial of insulin and a Dexxom G7 continuous glucose monitor (VOCM News file photo)
According to Diabetes Canada, over 5.8 million Canadians are living with some form of diabetes with 300,000 diagnosed with type 1.
Newfoundland and Labrador has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the country with approximately 18 per cent of the population living with type 1, type 2 or undiagnosed type 2 diabetes.
Banting Memorial Park in Musgrave Harbour was named in Sir Frederick Banting’s memory (Banting Memorial Park/Facebook)
Sir Frederick Banting, who was born on this day in 1891, died in a plane crash near Musgrave Harbour in February 1941.
