The World Health Organisation estimates that 422 million adults had diabetes in 2014, and these numbers continue to rise. Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy. In Australia, gestational diabetes makes up over a quarter of insulin treated diabetes cases, equating to over 100 women registered with gestational diabetes each day.
The consequences of gestational diabetes don’t end with pregnancy. Thirty percent of children born from a gestational diabetic pregnancy will develop type 2 diabetes later in life, and one in two women who had gestational diabetes will also develop type 2 diabetes within five to ten years.
I hope to better understand gestational diabetes, and so to make a positive impact on women and their children who might otherwise be our future diabetics. I hope that by helping during pregnancy we can prevent the damage before it happens.
The Lions are committed to funding research that will impact the health of Australians and people around the world, with diabetes a central Area of Giving of Lions Clubs International.
Medical research can improve many lives, and your support can help in kick starting the work of the next generation of researchers.
I invite you to help fund emerging researchers like myself, who over the coming years aim to make a difference to important health issues.
Thank you, we couldn’t do it without you.
Yours sincerely,
Olivia