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In 1921, the revolutionary Canadian discovery of insulin made treatment for diabetes a reality. One hundred years later, the need for new diabetes breakthroughs is just as urgent.

It’s been 100 years since the discovery of insulin turned a devastating, almost always fatal disease into a treatable one – and yet the suffering caused by diabetes in Canada continues.

Prevalence is on the rise. Today, it is estimated that one in two young adults in this country will develop type 2 diabetes in their remaining lifetime. The disease is shockingly successful at shutting down parts of the body one at a time in those diagnosed. Managing blood glucose and preventing complications is an exhausting 24/7 job, with enormous individual and societal impacts. Diabetes costs our health-care system $30-billion and, as case numbers increase, so too will the human and financial toll.

Since 1953, Diabetes Canada and its supporters have invested more than $140-million in research, contributing to countless incremental breakthroughs that have improved the lives of people living with the disease – from more effective lifestyle coaching services and new technologies, like the artificial pancreas, to stem cell treatments that show much promise in the search for a cure for type 1 diabetes.

The organization is now doubling down on those efforts with the launch of the End Diabetes Fund.

“We don’t know where the next innovative treatment or the cure for diabetes will come from,” says Seema Nagpal, the organization’s vice president of science and policy. “We do know that funding research is the path forward to finding those discoveries.”

Since the discovery of insulin, innovative breakthroughs have helped make it possible for people to better manage their blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol, quit smoking and protect their kidneys, says Dr. Nagpal. “When these things are managed well, a person with diabetes can live as long as someone without diabetes – and that change in life expectancy is because of the improved treatments that have become available over the past century.”

“But we can’t wait another 100 years,” says Laura Syron, Diabetes Canada’s president and CEO. “In terms of immediate action, this means advocating for a national diabetes framework, providing education to people who need it and continuing to fund research to improve care and to eventually find a cure. Insulin was the starting point, but we’re still very far from the finish line.

“We are working on our next research competition right now, starting with a diabetes community survey that included patients, researchers and clinicians. We asked them what ‘we can’t wait another hundred years’ means to them and how they felt it should shape our competition.”

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Part of the challenge is a lack of understanding, despite widespread awareness. While 11.5 million Canadians live with or are at risk of diabetes, many people still don’t realize all the devastating physical and psychological consequences of the disease, Ms. Syron explains. “They just don’t know that diabetes is the leading cause of adult-onset blindness, that it causes kidney failure, 40 per cent of heart attacks and 30 per cent of strokes. We need to help more people recognize and accept that this is a serious disease with serious consequences.”

A national framework is needed to ensure that Canadians in all regions have access to the supplies, devices, medications and care that help them manage their disease to avoid poor outcomes. “Recently, the Prince Edward Island government, which has a provincial diabetes strategy, announced an additional $1-million for diabetes support, which would include access to glucose monitoring systems. These are the kinds of wins that we need to see. People with diabetes need to be able to access these life-saving devices and medications,” says Ms. Syron.

All Canadians have a role to play in this critical effort, whether it’s educating themselves, lending their voice to advocacy for a national diabetes framework, writing to their MP, getting involved as volunteers or participating in a fundraising program, she stresses. “In September, we’re having our ‘Lace-Up for Diabetes’ event, and we’re looking for Canadians across the country to join us and to help raise money so that we don’t have to wait another 100 years. You can run, you can walk, you can dance, you can bike.

“As Canadians, we’re very proud of the discovery of insulin, but we can’t be proud of the state of diabetes in our nation right now. And the urgency to act grows with every passing day.”

Advertising feature produced by Randall Anthony Communications with Diabetes Canada. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.