99 years ago today Dr Banting had a crazy idea whilst in bed trying to sleep. The seemingly impossible idea kept playing around in his head and he could not sleep. Banting wrote a note to himself, a “brain dump” to allow him to remember his thoughts the next day and then allow himself to sleep.
This is a copy of the note, which is reproduced from Banting House.Â
“Diabetes
Ligate pancreatic ducts of dog.
Keep dogs alive till acini degenerate leaving islets.
Try to isolate the internal secretion of these to relieve glycaemia.”
Just 15 months later, Banting had managed to isolate islets (cells in the pancreas that make insulin) and successfully used this “internal secretion” which later became known as insulin in order to save the lives of 52 children who were in diabetic coma’s in Toronto Children’s Hospital. Until this point, diabetes only meant certain death.
Banting is our hero and we will be telling many more stories about him and his work over the next month, as November is Diabetes Awareness Month and World Diabetes Day is on November 14th, which is Banting’s birthday. We will also be using November to raise vital funds to fund our work in India to ensure all children have access to insulin this World Diabetes Day.
Please leave a donation if you can, and if not we would really appreciate a share.