Outreach June 2014 | Page 32

Clothes for the CDA

The Canadian Diabetes Association is an organization that is set up to help people who are diagnosed with diabetes. They help supply people with the proper equipment they need such as testing strips, glucose meters, syringes and medication. The CDA helps fund research for diabetes and works in a partnership with various organizations such as Value Village and Clothesline.

Diabetes is a very deadly disease. It isn't taken seriously by most people and is the butt of many jokes.Over 9 million canadians suffer from diabetes, out of these 9 million 16% of them will die from heart complications such as strokes and arrhythmia. People who are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes , on average, die 20 years earlier than those who are not. These people suffer from brain, kidney and nerve damage and even have a chance of going blind. I learned about all of this when my brother was diagnosed with diabetes. I wanted to help him in some way. when my class was deciding what to do for our initiative i brought up the idea of doing a clothing drive for the CDA. My class agreed with the idea and we started bringing in clothes.