Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page. On Sunday 30th September we will be walking 10 miles over 12 London bridges to raise money for Diabetes UK.

Earlier this year Lenny, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes kills more people each year than AIDS and Breast Cancer put together, and the UK has the highest mortality rate from Diabetes in Europe. Type 1 Diabetes is an auto-immune disease, with no known cause or cure.

Lenny is only 6. He is an amazing friend to our  sons and daughters. He has a minimum of 6 injections a day, over 20 blood tests throughout the day and night, and at least one hypoglycaemic episode every single day. This alone could kill him with absolutely no warning because Lenny has no hypo awareness, so his blood sugar can drop low enough for him to go into Brain Failure before he felt a thing. His amazing family have to wake Lenny throughout the night to treat him, as so many deaths occur when T1 Diabetics have a hypo in their sleep, and just don’t wake up again. They do this with courage, bravery and smiles on their faces whilst also caring for a 4 year old and a newborn. We are in awe.

Because of the possible fatal consequences of Lenny’s Hypo unawareness, his consultant said he needs a Continuous Glucose Monitor. This is a sensor that goes just under the skin, that they can remotely monitor his blood sugar 24/7 without finger pricking him, with alarms that would be triggered on their phones if his blood sugars dropped to a dangerous level. Despite every medical professional agreeing that this is a necessity for Lenny, the trust (Birmingham and Solihull CCG) have decided not to fund it, and agreed that even though he needs it, they will have to fund it themselves. However, the majority of CCG’s in Britain DO fund this, and not just for children but for adults too (142 out of 200.)
Oh, and he meets every single one of the NICE guidelines for it too.
If they lived in a postcode just 10 miles away he would be given this as a matter of course.

What a comforting thought, that genuine life or death decisions on a 6 year olds health and quality of life is made by the very same CCG who decided to fund plastic surgery for a 25 year old man who wanted to look like Joey Essex.

Please help us meet out target and share to raise awareness, and give kids with this cruel disease a chance at life. CGM’s save lives!