THE
CHARLES H. BEST
DIABETES CENTRE
FINANCIAL HEALTH
The Charles H. Best Diabetes Centre is a registered charity (#13662-3295-RR0001) and operates under a volunteer Board of Directors consisting of members with a background in business, legal, financial as well as community and corporate representatives.
The Ministry of Health provides The Best Centre with government assistance amounting to approximately 60% of its operating revenues. While this funding is extremely helpful, it does not come close to covering the costs necessary to run The Best Centre. We continue to supplement the remaining 40% through various events and fundraising activities.
33,000 school age children (5-18yrs) in Canada have type 1 diabetes.
For more than 25 years, The Charles H Best Diabetes Centre has been bringing medical and emotional support, along with educational programs to hundreds of children and adults living with type 1 diabetes, a life-threatening auto-immune disease. This illness can strike anyone at any time, but is typically diagnosed in children between the ages of 18 months and 15 years.
When someone is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes their entire world must change in an instant, as the disease strikes without warning. So much information must be immediately learned about diet, carbohydrate counting, insulin dosages, the signs of high blood sugar levels and life-threatening low blood sugar levels.
Daily life with type 1 diabetes can be quite challenging to manage. Someone living with T1D will test their blood sugars by poking their fingers with a needle at least 6-8 times per day and inject insulin before they eat anything, which amounts to over 5,400 needles each year.
As a way of achieving our mission, we strive to provide the latest education, information and support available from the time of diagnosis through all of life stages; from sick days to pregnancies, from school days to work days and every day in between. While there are many organizations focused on finding a cure, we are focused on keeping these individuals healthy with programs that enable them to cope with the challenging daily demands of this disease.