Tag: affordable insulin

Are we really ripping off the NHS?

Why I’m not sorry for sending insulin to a stranger in the US (again)

A while back I was accused of ripping off the NHS. I also got it in the neck for involving my youngest daughter in the ‘technically illegal’ act of sending insulin my doctor had advised me to stop taking to a stranger who needed it in the US. There were other criticisms: because the US ‘foams at the mouth’ at…

Why I’m running 186 miles for T1International

Without insulin, you die. Yet it’s estimated that half of the world’s type one diabetics live without adequate access to the hormone most of us take for granted [T1International]. Even in countries where insulin is available, many cannot afford to pay for it. In the US, where the price of insulin has more than tripled in a decade, people are dying because they cannot afford medication that’s free here in the UK on the NHS. Charity T1International is campaigning to change this.

In the below film you’ll meet Ruth, a 16 year old living with type one diabetes in Ghana who’s been put through school by T1International. She’s determined not to let the condition, which is an effective death sentence for most Africans diagnosed with diabetes, from stopping her realise her dream of becoming a nurse.  There’s Cate, from Kenya, where T1International is uniting diabetics to negotiate lower prices on the drugs they need and Karyn in the US, who has seen fellow diabetics die as a result of exorbitant insulin prices.

This is why I’m running 186 miles for T1International

Please donate

On 14 June 2018 I am starting the three day, 186 mile Marathon des Cote, a foot race that covers the entire Pembrokeshire Coast Path. No one is known to have ever completed the route in less than four days. I hope I’ve made my motives clear: that people are dying because they cannot access or afford a drug that has been in existence for more than a century is a scandal. Please donate whatever you can to help T1International end this. You can donate by visiting my Just Giving page, here.