Message Points

Message Points for Promise to Remember Me Campaign

• Thank the Member of Congress for meeting with you
• Tell your personal story and highlight the personal toll and economic impact of diabetes
  • Diabetes shortens life expectancy by 15 years and has the potential for such devastating effects as: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputation, heart attack, and stroke.
  • One in five health care dollars in the U.S. is spent caring for someone with diagnosed diabetes.
  • Diabetes is the single most costly chronic disease and accounts for $132 billion in health-care costs in the U.S.
• Tangible progress is being made towards better treatments and a cure for type 1 diabetes, as well as benefits beyond diabetes treatment and prevention, because of a strong federal commitment to research.
  • There are clinical trials underway involving newly diagnosed children that have had success in halting the progression of diabetes.
  • Drugs originally approved for use in cancer therapy are being used to successfully treat both type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients with diabetic eye disease – the leading cause of blindness in working age adults. Results have been very promising.
  • Advances in technology – such as continuous glucose monitors – are providing better tools for people to manage their diabetes.
• JDRF is doing its part
  • JDRF will fund approximately $137 million in research (approximately 32% of all type 1 diabetes research in this country.)
• Please support the renewal of the Special Diabetes Program.
  • o If Congress does not renew this program, federal support for type 1 diabetes research will be reduced by 35% and much of the most promising research will be delayed or halted completely.
  • There are currently approximately 60,000 people participating in clinical research directly supported by this program.

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