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Professor Harry Keen from Diabetes UK, based in Camden Town |
Pioneer beat death sentence
Professor Harry Keen on the origins of Diabetes UK, based in Camden Town
CAMDEN Town now houses, at 10 Parkway, the HQ of a rather remarkable organisation, Diabetes UK.
It is easy to forget, in these days when every long-term medical condition has its own association, that in 1934 there were no such patient-based organisations anywhere in the world.
That was the year in which the Diabetic Association (later, the British Diabetic Association, then Diabetes UK as other countries took up the idea) was founded by three people, all of whom had diabetes.
The prime mover was a doctor, Dr Robin D Lawrence, RDL to his patients and friends. RDL had served in World War I and developed his diabetes in 1921, before the discovery of insulin, when the diagnosis was a death sentence.
He had the classical symptoms of the type 1 form of the disease, with excessive thirst, profuse urination and rapid weight loss, passing sugar and ketones in his urine.
Facing death within months or a year or two, and being the sort of man he was, he decided that, if he was going to die, he would do it in pleasant surroundings so he went off to Florence to doctor the British expats there.
A telegram from London in 1923 saved his life by telling him to get home quick.
Life-saving insulin had just become available and dramatically lifted the death sentence from him, and eventually from many millions of others.
By 1934, there were already many insulin-treated survivors but they were having a hard time of it. Everyone was terribly sympathetic but people were reluctant to give them jobs, offer them life insurance, even to consider them as marriage partners. Insulin was pretty pricey and we had no NHS.
RDL mobilised two of his notable diabetic patients, HG Wells, the writer and philosopher, and GDH Cole, the political theorist and economist, and together they founded ‘the Diabetic Association’, made up of people with diabetes and those concerned with their care.
With a growing band of members, they campaigned for better life opportunities, help with treatment costs and the general recognition that people with diabetes could live full and productive lives.
It is said that Wells and Cole fed back these experiences through the Fabian Society and that they made a significant contribution to thinking about the NHS and its social purposes.
Today, many people who owe their lives to daily injections of insulin play key roles in the life of the nation.
Camden’s diabetic population is below the national average, with 2.5 per cent of its population – 5,893 people – living with diabetes, compared with 3.6 per cent across England.
Diabetes UK supports diabetes welfare and research in Britain and makes many contributions to support diabetes causes the world over.
Camden has every reason to be proud of its diabetes links. Now, with more than two million people with diabetes in the UK, the Camden-based association has branches all over the country. With more than 200,000 members, Diabetes UK plays a major role not only in the welfare of people with diabetes and research into its causes and cure but also in reminding us of the enormous value of our NHS, its proud history and the need to preserve it for the future.
ARSENAL footballing legend Charlie George opened a state-of-the-art imaging department at the Whittington Hospital in Archway.
Dr David Grant, a Consultant Radiologist at The Whittington Hospital, said: “We are all delighted with the new department. This approach ensures that access to modern and well-maintained equipment is kept constant. This is a huge advantage in maintaining the standard of clinical care.”
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