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Today (14th Nov) sees the culmination of week-long activities at Boehringer Ingelheim aiming to raise awareness of the global diabetes epidemic, in support of World Diabetes Day. Yesterday (13th Nov), over 450 employees participated in a 3km run in the knowledge that each kilometre completed would be convert into a monetary contribution to the IDF’s ‘Life for a Child’ programme.
“Diabetes affects over 360 million people worldwide and is likely to increase by 50% over the next 20 years, potentially reaching a figure close to 550 million people”, said Glyn Parkin, Corporate Vice President Metabolism at Boehringer Ingelheim. “We are committed supporters of the ‘Life for a Child’ programme, it is an excellent initiative which we are very happy to be assisting for the fourth consecutive year.”
The IDF’s ‘Life for a Child Programme’ is an international aid programme that provides life saving support to more than 10,000 children with diabetes in developing countries through fundraising and monetary contributions.(1) The financial support from Boehringer Ingelheim will go directly to diabetes centres in these countries, enabling them to provide the ongoing clinical care and diabetes education children need to stay alive.
“We are extremely grateful for all contributions to the ‘Life for a Child’ programme”, said Dr Graham Ogle, General Manager of the IDF ‘Life for a Child’ Programme. “We estimate that 80-100,000 children and youths with diabetes around the world are in urgent need of assistance and we hope that with this programme, many of these disadvantaged children will receive the medical supplies, clinical treatment and diabetes education that they critically need.”
For the last 125 years Boehringer Ingelheim has been committed to improving the health and well-being of people worldwide. A great deal of importance is placed on promoting awareness of diabetes among its employees. In addition to the run for diabetes, Boehringer Ingelheim conducted a number of other awareness raising activities including; an internal communication campaign designed to increase the understanding of diabetes, corporate offices being lit up in blue lights as a visual statement of solidarity and serving special lunchtime menus with the opportunity to let employees test their blood sugar levels – all with the aim of promoting a healthy diet and active lifestyle for the prevention and control of type 2 diabetes (T2D).
Reference
- International Diabetes Federation. Available at: www.idf.org/lifeforachild/the-programme
