Diabetes donation
May 03, 2006
Section: News
Ron Gorman Oak Flats Lions Club project coordinator, Rob Holt Lions Club President, Tony Stephen owner Warilla Hotel and Mark Gilmore manager Gilmores Coniston Hotel
AS a sufferer of Diabetes Joel Miller has to inject himself each day to keep his insulin levels normal. An $8000 pump could save him this daily necessity.
The Lions Club has offered to help Joel and his mother Karen raise the money. Thanks mainly to a $2000 donation from the Illawarra Hoteliers Association they have already raised $5000.
Members of the Illawarra Hoteliers Association include the Warilla Hotel and Gilmores Coniston Hotel.
The other $3000 has come from community donations and fundraising activities.
Rob Holt, president of the Lions Club, said they were happy to take on the appeal.
Karen is a single mother, there is no way she could afford the $8000, said Mr Holt.
The $2000 donation by the Illawarra Hoteliers Association has provided a welcome boost to the appeal but the Lions Club said all donations are welcomed and can be made through the Lions Club or the Oak Flats branch of the Bendigo Bank.
Fundraising efforts so far include a mufti day organised by Kelli Marsh of the St Vincent De Paul Society, bucket collections over Easter and a Warilla Uniting Baptist Church trivia night.
We are still looking for donations, whatever they can afford is most welcome, said Mr Holt.
Joel suffers from type 1 juvenile diabetes. The pump will provide small, constant levels of insulin all the time relieving Joel of the highs and lows in blood sugar some diabetics suffer from.
Joel must be put on a waiting list and into a program before he can have the pump so the faster the money can be raised to purchase the pump the faster Joel can be put on the list.
It takes five months through the medical system once the pump has been purchased so it will be August at the earliest before he has it fitted, said Mr Holt.
Mr Holt said Ms Miller has to go to school at lunchtime to inject her child.
It will change his life and it will change his families life, said Mr Holt.