Posted by MAR on June 05, 1999 at 06:05:21:
In Reply to: Letter for JDF CC from Brian's school nurse posted by Sandy Donchess on June 03, 1999 at 22:05:44:
Makes me proud to be a nurse! Thanks so much, Sandy, for all your help in buiding the chorus that will support Sam and the 100 kids going to DC this month. It's still not too late for ANYONE to write letters or, even easier, get form letters signed. The JDF has a great form letter which I have nowhere on my computer, so I'll just copy/paste the one I wrote. It has the address to the JDF right on it, where diligent workers will sort according to zip/district for the kids to deliver. PLEASE write or ask people to sign so the kids' voices are loud and clear!
MAR
Date:_______________
Dear Member of Congress:
The Centers For Disease Control describe diabetes as “the epidemic of our time”. The disease costs $100 billion in medical care and other expenses every year. It is the single most costly chronic disease, costing an average of $600,000 in today’s dollars for a person diagnosed at age three.
Yet, though the National Institutes for Health budget doubled from 1987-1997, the budget for diabetes research grew by just one third. In fact, in 1999 the NIH will deliver as much money to foreign countries for AIDS research as it has allocated for diabetes research in the U.S.
Diabetes kills one American every three minutes. A new case of diabetes is diagnosed every 40 seconds. The incidence of Type 1 diabetes is increasing 6% every year.
The congressionally established Diabetes Research Working Group (DRWG) has identified hundreds of opportunities in diabetes research that are currently being missed because of a lack of funding. To take advantage of them, DRWG has recommended that the government spend $827 million on diabetes research this year, nearly double the current amount. The best hope of a cure, islet cell transplantation, has “been neglected for twenty-five years, and steps must be taken to remedy this.” (words of Gordon Weir, noted diabetes researcher at Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston.) Please advocate for the sixteen million diabetics in this country who anxiously await the only solution: a cure.
Sincerely,
_______________________
(signature)
_______________________
_______________________
(address with zip code)
Mail to JDF Children’s Congress
320 Old Chain Bridge Road, Suite 330
McLean, VA 22101