Flower Power: How You Can Save A Child With Diabetes

Struggling to find the perfect Valentine’s Day gift this year? For February 14, we ask you to extend your love to children who have diabetes but don’t have access to life-saving treatment. You can help by buying just one less rose for your valentine and donating the value of that flower to the International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) Life for a Child. This program provides the critical diabetes supplies, medication, and education that children with diabetes in developing countries need to stay alive. It currently helps over 10,000 children across the globe gain access to necessary supplies - IDF estimates that over 70,000 more children still need help, so please assist if you can. You can donate online at www.p4dc.com/spare-a-rose.

Despite how far we’ve come in diabetes care, lack of access to insulin is the most common cause of death for many children with diabetes – in some places, the estimated life expectancy of a child who has just developed diabetes could be less than a year. That is unacceptable and truly preventable. From February 1-14th, we are reaching out to the diabetes online community to help change this. Last year, we raised $3,000 in one week; this year, we’ve tripled our goal and hope to raise $10,000.

In addition to donating, you can also help raise awareness of the “Spare a Rose, Save a Child” campaign by reaching out through social media (with #SpareARose on Twitter), the diabetes online community, and to family, friends, and colleagues. Please visit the Spare a Rose website for images, flyers, FAQs, and much more information. Help us, won’t you please, either through sparing a rose or expanding this dynamite program’s visibility?  Thank you ever, ever so much.

Update: Thank you all for those to participated in Spare a Rose! This year, we raised more than $26,000 - enough to supply nearly 500 children with insulin for a year! –AR/NL