CJN (January 8, 2004)
By Frances Kraft

The Diabetes Hope Foundation is offering university scholarships with a twist. What makes these $2,500 awards unique is that they are not only related to marks and extracurricular activities, but are contingent on applicants maintaining their health during the preceding year.

“It’s a wonderful tool,” said Barbara Pasternak, founder and chair of the foundation (www.diabeteshopefoundation.com) and the mother of three sons, two of whom are university students who have Type 1 diabetes (formerly called juvenile-onset diabetes), which, like Type 2 diabetes (formerly called adult-onset diabetes), prevents the production or proper use of insulin, a hormone needed for the body to process sugar.

Scholarship applicants must be turning 18, said Pasternak, because after that, patients are not accepted in the pediatric health care system. In Ontario, pediatric clinics begin to prepare young diabetics for the transition to adult care a year ahead of time, but more than 40 per cent of young people with diabetes don’t return to the health care system at all. Of those, she said, approximately half return five years later with complications such as kidney and eye problems.

Pasternak began the scholarships four years ago as an added incentive and has awarded 62 of them. This year, she hopes to award 30 more.

Leaving home for the first time to go away to university can be traumatic for kids with diabetes, said Pasternak.

“They have to be very vigilant in their diet, exercise, insulin and health care.”

About 10 per cent of the scholarship recipients had already begun to neglect their health in high school but decided to “come back into the fold” and apply for the awards, she said. On the application form, students must include three blood sugar levels from the previous year, as tested in hospital. The deadline for scholarship application for the coming year is the end of March.

Pasternak, a teacher by training who now operates a business with her husband, had no experience with diabetes or fundraising when her son Bobby, now 19, was diagnosed eight years ago. Jesse, now 20, was diagnosed a year later.

Although Bobby’s symptoms are obvious to Pasternak in retrospect, at the time she figured that the young competitive hockey player was sweaty, tired and thirsty so often because of his intensive sports involvement.

It was only after he fainted in her arms following a game that he was diagnosed. But an initial hospitalization didn’t mean the end of his hockey career. His doctor gave him a day pass, warning that Bobby might not play well.

“Exercise is so important,” said Pasternak.

“As a mother, I felt it was necessary for me to make a difference – to make sense of what was going on, and how I could keep them healthy,” Pasternak said. “I decided I wanted to make a difference for not only my children, but for others.”

Although she knew of organizations that funded diabetes research – such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation – Pasternak said she found gaps in terms of addressing day-to-day care issues and awareness.

Last year, she established a Medical Assistance Program to provide funding for diabetic youngsters whose families can’t afford the insulin they need to stay healthy. For patients who need three or four injections a day, insulin can run $200 to $250 a month, said Pasternak, who runs the foundation with one assistant. An insulin pump, which is not covered by Ontario’s health insurance plan, costs approximately $5,500. The device “mimics the actual pancreas in that it slowly infuses insulin into the system all the time,” she explained.

The Diabetes Hope Foundation also provides funding for Camp Huronda, a non-profit summer camp for children with diabetes.

As well, Pasternak runs an annual golf tournament to raise money for the foundation. Last year’s raised $140,000.

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