1 Campaign raises issues of type 1 diabetes

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has launched the 1 Campaign to raise the profile of type 1 diabetes in the UK.
The JDRF believes that type 1 diabetes is currently being overlooked by the government in the wake of type 2 diabetes . According to figures, £51 million was spent by the government on diabetes research, with £6 million (12 per cent) of that being spent on research applicable to type 1 diabetes.
The campaign also looks to highlight the fact that the UK is falling behind other European countries in terms of access to insulin pumps . In the UK, the number of people with type 1 on insulin pumps is 4 per cent, whereas it is 15-20 per cent in a number of other European countries and 35 per cent in the US.
A related issue are the inconsistencies in how access to insulin pumps is allocated across different parts of the country. This postcode lottery has seen areas such as Blackburn enjoying good access to insulin pumps, at 17 per cent compared with a paltry 0.4 per cent for those in Luton.