Change the type
of Christmas

Help children and families living with diabetes

Andrew is one of the 1.5 million Australians living with diabetes, a condition that never takes a day off.

This Christmas, give more than a gift. Give hope, compassion, and a chance for kids like Andrew to simply be kids.

Your generosity can help through:

$37 Your caring gift helps children and families like Andrew’s with the education and support they need to live well with diabetes.

$65 Your kindness helps fund vital programs and advocacy – reaching children and families when and where it matters most.

$112 Your generosity powers life-saving research helping to shape a future where diabetes can do no harm.

You’ll be helping provide essential support to families and individuals navigating life with diabetes, delivering vital education to communities, and funding life-changing diabetes research.  

 

“Without advocacy from Diabetes Australia we would have a child who couldn’t have much of a childhood due to diabetes.”

~ Melanie, Andrew’s mum. 

 

 

Make your donation today.

Every step forward – every life changed – is because of you.

Together, because we can’t do it without you.

Thank you.

Meet Andrew — a brave 10-year-old boy whose life changed forever in 2021 when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. What began as a quiet Friday during COVID lockdown quickly turned into a terrifying medical emergency.

After eight stressful days in the hospital, the family returned home to a new reality of managing type 1 diabetes. Without access to a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), Melanie was forced to wake every night to check Andrew’s blood sugar manually. The fear of missing a dangerous low and finding her son unresponsive in the morning was constant.

“The first few weeks without a CGM was hell. I didn’t sleep. I was so scared and traumatised by watching him barely conscious being loaded into a helicopter. Nights were darker than I ever knew they could be, cold and silent, isolating,” Melanie recalls.

Donate today and help children just like Andrew.

Thanks to the advocacy of Diabetes Australia and the generosity of donors, Andrew was eventually able to access CGM technology. It was life-changing. With real-time data, Melanie could finally sleep, knowing she’d be alerted to dangerous changes in Andrew’s blood sugar. Andrew could go to school, play sports, and attend Scouts camps with greater freedom and safety.

But access to an insulin pump was much harder. The family had to upgrade their private health insurance, pay higher premiums, and endure a 12-month waiting period because diabetes was considered a pre-existing condition.

Melanie explains that during this time, “Andrew had met a local ‘DiaBuddy’ the same age, and this boy had a pump. Andrew watched him being able to eat whenever and just press some buttons on his pump. He told me that night he wanted to ask Santa for an insulin pump for Christmas. I told him I would figure it out and get one as soon as I could, but he wasn’t to waste his Christmas wishes on diabetes stuff.”

Determined to give Andrew the best chance at a normal childhood, Melanie applied for a loan pump and hired a private diabetes nurse to speed up the process.

Today, Andrew is thriving. With his CGM and insulin pump, he can be a kid. But not every family is as fortunate. Many children in Australia still go without access to things like life-saving diabetes technology simply because they can’t afford it.

Your generosity this Christmas will help change that.

Donate today and help children and families living with diabetes — your gift could change a life. Thank you.