PDGN People: Number three – Sir Michael Hirst

CAPTION: Current International Diabetes Federation (IDF) President Professor Andrew Boulton (left), catching up with PDGN Co-Chair and a former IDF President Sir Michael Hirst

PDGN has three Co-Chairs; Chris Delicata, John Bowis OBE and here the third, one of the founders of PDGN, Sir Michael Hirst tells of his interest and involvement.

My interest in diabetes started when my youngest child was diagnosed with Type 1 at the age of five, over thirty years ago. The ‘eureka moment’ was when I was handed a glass syringe to practice injecting insulin. I asked the doctor if there was not an easier way to inject and the nurse produced a disposable syringe, but then told me that I would have to pay for it. I felt this was unfair to families who could not afford to pay.

Then a Member of Parliament, I resolved to campaign for improved care and treatment for people with diabetes. It was a weary battle to persuade the Health and Finance Ministries to provide disposable syringes. Mounting concern over HIV prompted the UK Government to provide a free needle exchange to curtail the spread of HIV. I was dismayed that needles were available to drug-abusers, but not to people who were insulin-dependent.

I went to the Prime Minister to seek justice. She listened sympathetically, and instructed the Health Ministry to make disposable syringes available. Its budget assumed one use only for the syringe, so the excess funds were soon available for blood glucose monitoring.

The National Diabetes Association, now Diabetes UK, realised that I could help them with lobbying, and I was elected to the board of trustees, becoming the chairman from 2001-2006. In 2005, IDF asked me to be deputy chair of the successful international campaign for a UN Resolution on Diabetes which proved to be the foundation for many real advances in diabetes care.

In 2006, I was elected to the board of the International Diabetes Federation, becoming President-Elect in 2010 and President in 2013. The Global Network started at that time, when Guy Barnett and I convened a global meeting of Parliamentarians committed to championing diabetes in their own Parliaments.