A Message from Steve Hitchins
It’s all about finding a cure for type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is contracted early in life and is an auto-immune disease which means your body’s own immune system attacks the pancreas and destroys the insulin producing cells. It has nothing to do with lifestyle or diet unlike the more common type 2 diabetes.
As many of you know, I have had type 1 diabetes for 40 years. Because it doesn’t kill you when you contract it, many people seem to think that the discovery of insulin injections in 1922 was a cure. It isn’t. It’s a treatment for a lifelong chronic disease which reduces life expectancy (now by 12-15 years on average) and produces serious and damaging complications later in life including blindness, kidney disease and significantly increased threat of coronary heart disease. In addition living with four or more injections a day and half a dozen blood sugar tests is a challenge for any adult let alone very young children. This treatment is a life sentence as well as a life saver! It's a lifestyle I've endured personally for those 40 years.
For three years now I have been involved in raising money to research a cure, chairing the UK branch of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I sit on the International Board also. This year JDRF intends to raise and spend over $170 million on medical research around the world to find a cure. We are also increasingly successful in persuading governments to contribute from their own medical research budgets. The financial case is unchallengeable. Finding a cure to diabetes will have a dramatic and permanent reduction for NHS budgets. Type 1 with its length of sentence and its difficult complications is an expensive disease for the NHS. We believe more cash is pent on type 1 than on the more common type 2. Now many respected and senior scientists believe a cure is a very realisable ambition.
World Diabetes Day is November 14th which this year is a Saturday and for much of the week before there will be events around the country marking the day. You may see a number of prominent public buildings (including the European Parliament, the UN building and the London Eye) highlighted with blue lights – our colour!
And this is where I want your help! On Monday November 9th with around twenty young children all with type 1 diabetes I shall be delivering a giant syringe filled with e-mail messages addressed to the Prime Minister asking the government to increase research to find a cure for type 1 diabetes. We are aiming to collect at least 10,000 messages. Will you click on this link and spend ten seconds doing your bit? I need these all soon so please respond as soon as possible!!
http://www.jdrfaware.com/remindGordon.aspx?dm_i=4UH,22S4,AW9UO,6N6X,1
Thank you very much and, if you have another 30 seconds, please consider forwarding this message to your e-mail address book so that they can contribute too. It will make a tremendous difference.
Steve Hitchins, Former Leader of Islington Council
Showing posts with label Gordon Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gordon Brown. Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Thursday, 28 May 2009
FORMER LABOUR DEPUTY LEADER; LORD HATTERSLEY TODAY REPEATED HIS CALL FOR HAZEL BLEARS TO SACKED FORM GOVERNMENT
It’s been announced today that both Tory MP Julie Kirkbride and Labour’s Margaret Moran will both step down over the expenses scandal - eleven MPs have now resigned as a result of the affair.
Bromsgrove MP Ms Kirkbride followed her husband, in announcing her departure from parliament at the next general election. The couple came under fire when it emerged that Commons allowances had been used to simultaneously fund both the homes where they lived.
Luton South MP Ms Moran has been under fire after it was disclosed that she claimed £22,500 for treating dry rot at her partner’s home in Southampton, 100 miles from both her constituency and Westminster.
However, some experts believe that many more MPs will be forced to give up their seat, and not seek re-election. There is also a view that “expenses issue” could lead to at least the resignation or sacking of one Cabinet Minister.
And, that is a view backed by former Labour Deputy Leader; Lord Hattersley who today repeated his call for Hazel Blears to be sacked from the government, adding he wished the Prime Minister would say what he believed on a number of issues.
Avoiding taxes, like capital gains tax, as done by Ms Blears may be legal, but: “It revolts all sense of what the Labour party and Gordon Brown stands for.”
“It’s time for Gordon Brown to show what he really thinks. I just wish he would say what he believes on this and other issues,” he said.
Pressed to say he believed Hazel Blears should be sacked, he said: “I said that last night. I have no problem saying that, of course she should go. The Prime Minister is a good deal more tender-hearted than I am”.
Bromsgrove MP Ms Kirkbride followed her husband, in announcing her departure from parliament at the next general election. The couple came under fire when it emerged that Commons allowances had been used to simultaneously fund both the homes where they lived.
Luton South MP Ms Moran has been under fire after it was disclosed that she claimed £22,500 for treating dry rot at her partner’s home in Southampton, 100 miles from both her constituency and Westminster.
However, some experts believe that many more MPs will be forced to give up their seat, and not seek re-election. There is also a view that “expenses issue” could lead to at least the resignation or sacking of one Cabinet Minister.
And, that is a view backed by former Labour Deputy Leader; Lord Hattersley who today repeated his call for Hazel Blears to be sacked from the government, adding he wished the Prime Minister would say what he believed on a number of issues.
Avoiding taxes, like capital gains tax, as done by Ms Blears may be legal, but: “It revolts all sense of what the Labour party and Gordon Brown stands for.”
“It’s time for Gordon Brown to show what he really thinks. I just wish he would say what he believes on this and other issues,” he said.
Pressed to say he believed Hazel Blears should be sacked, he said: “I said that last night. I have no problem saying that, of course she should go. The Prime Minister is a good deal more tender-hearted than I am”.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
SUSAN BOYLE: NEW INTERNET PHENOMENA – MORE HITS IN ONE DAY THAN IAIN DALE GETS IN A WHOLE YEAR
Unusually yesterday I had the chance to watch the BBC News at 1 pm, and of course there were the usual political stories – to feed my daily appetite.
But, then I heard about the new “Internet Phenomena” – Susan Boyle! Susan appeared on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday night - and was an instant hit. The moment she walked on stage we knew something spectacular was going to happen – she was going to be hit or a flop!
Susan is a 47-year-old church volunteer from West Lothian who has become an overnight singing sensation with millions watching her perform not only on TV but now on the YouTube Channel and yesterday at 1 pm there had been 5 and half million views of her Saturday night performance, and what a performance.
On Saturday, Susan Boyle literally stunned the judges with her performance of I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables – even Simon Cowell was lost for words – he was stunned.
Ms Boyle has now become the bookies’ favourite to win the talent show.
In less than 24 hours Susan popularity ratings are shooting way beyond she could ever imagine – there have been millions of other internet viewers, and now the video footage of her appearance on Britain’s Got Talent has been viewed by an amazing 12,336,268 views and received a grand total of 69,782 comments. I posted this article on my other site earlier today, and only a few hours later the number of hits has increased by a further 600,000 – surely this must be a “record breaker – it proves “Britain’s Truly Got Talent”.
If, this carries on at this rate; there could be a danger of an “Internet Meltdown” and the death of the political blogger – we now have new phenomena – is it a cunning plot by Gordon Brown to save the world?
Watch out Iain Dale, your total yearly hits have been surpassed in just one day – you have now lost your “Internet Crown”.
But, then I heard about the new “Internet Phenomena” – Susan Boyle! Susan appeared on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday night - and was an instant hit. The moment she walked on stage we knew something spectacular was going to happen – she was going to be hit or a flop!
Susan is a 47-year-old church volunteer from West Lothian who has become an overnight singing sensation with millions watching her perform not only on TV but now on the YouTube Channel and yesterday at 1 pm there had been 5 and half million views of her Saturday night performance, and what a performance.
On Saturday, Susan Boyle literally stunned the judges with her performance of I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables – even Simon Cowell was lost for words – he was stunned.
Ms Boyle has now become the bookies’ favourite to win the talent show.
In less than 24 hours Susan popularity ratings are shooting way beyond she could ever imagine – there have been millions of other internet viewers, and now the video footage of her appearance on Britain’s Got Talent has been viewed by an amazing 12,336,268 views and received a grand total of 69,782 comments. I posted this article on my other site earlier today, and only a few hours later the number of hits has increased by a further 600,000 – surely this must be a “record breaker – it proves “Britain’s Truly Got Talent”.
If, this carries on at this rate; there could be a danger of an “Internet Meltdown” and the death of the political blogger – we now have new phenomena – is it a cunning plot by Gordon Brown to save the world?
Watch out Iain Dale, your total yearly hits have been surpassed in just one day – you have now lost your “Internet Crown”.
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