Bursting with Pride, not Diabetes
Occasionally your children will do something that you don’t really pay attention to what it is, passing it off with a “that’s nice”. Then, you take the time to look and you think “OMG!” sometimes that exclamation is for an “Oh Not Again!” and sometimes its positive, thankfully in this case it’s the latter. In fact, it’s so good that I want to shout about it and I guess that’s what this blog post is.
About a year ago my 14-year-old son, Xavier, and I decided to challenge ourselves – aiming high – we decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. We thought, no sweat, we have a year to prepare so we can build up to it slowly.
Fast forward to today and we have three weeks to prepare! It hasn’t been the slow meticulous preparation I had in mind, in fact it’s a mild panic because as usual having booked the climb I instantly forgot about it and went back to the hecticness of daily life.
It was only about a month ago when Xavier asked me how he should respond to an email, that I was reminded that we were doing the climb and it’s that email that inspired this post.
The email that jogged me back into reality and undue stress (about the fact that I am climbing a 6km high mountain) was from a charity called the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation “DRWF” who were thanking Xavier for the money he had raised for them. That is when for me it went from “that’s nice” to “OMG!”.
Originally when we had decided to do the challenge, my wife suggested to Xavier that he could use it as an opportunity to raise money for a charity. As a diligent young man, he chose one and set up a Just Giving page. He even asked my opinion to which he got the “that’s nice” response. It was only on reading the DRWF email I realised what a good job he had done. Xavier had not only chosen a charity and raised money, he had chosen one that resonated well with what I believe. He had done his own research and found a charity that was trying to tackle a world crippling chronic disease in a proactive, rather than reactive, way.
The crippling disease is diabetes, which if not managed well can deteriorate steadily to cause devastating complications such as blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure, heart disease and limb amputation. Diabetes already affects more than 415 million people worldwide and its growth rate is multiplying mainly due to lack of education and poor lifestyle choices. For every 10 people with diabetes, 1 (10%) has Type 1 which is unpreventable. The remaining 9 (90%) people have Type 2 which in many cases can be prevented.
Diabetes effects more than 3.8 million people (around 5.7% of the population) in the UK. It is estimated that around a further 500,000 adults have Type 2 and don’t know it. Currently, the treatment and care of diabetes and its related conditions accounts for around 10% of the annual NHS spend, approximately GBP 10 billion per year, or GBP 1 million per hour! It is reported that around 80% of this cost is associated with the treatment of complications, many of which could be avoided.
A similar picture can be found all over the world. For example, in Singapore (where Elemental Concept is opening its next office) the Ministry of Health reports that annually:
· 2 in 3 new kidney failure cases are due to diabetes.
· 1 in 2 people who had a heart attack had co-existing diabetes; and
· 2 in 5 people who had stroke had co-existing diabetes.
It is a common condition and affects 8.6% of the overall population in Singapore, an increase from 4.7% in 1984.
There is no doubt that there a desperate need for the detection, prevention and management of diabetes.
Xavier picked DRWF because they specifically work on raising awareness about all forms of diabetes so that people may take preventative actions where possible. They also provide support and tools to enable people to manage both type 1 and type 2 diabetes effectively thereby enhancing the quality of life and reducing the risk of the serious complications associated with the condition.
The email from DRWF prompted me to look at his Just Giving page and see how much he had raised. I was really impressed that he had gone to friends, family and schoolfriends to do something that really could make a difference. This made me want to do something to support his efforts and try and make a difference for this prophetic charity.
I have discussed this with my co-founders of Elemental Concept and our business partners at www.aladdinid.com and we have decided that between the two companies we will double what Xavier raises to try and get him to at least £10k. So, this is my request;
Please sponsor Xavier at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/xavier-shah
Please make us put our hands in our pockets to the maximum! Thank you.
