I recently had the honor to meet NFL Football Legend John Madden, who came to Washington, D.C. with his son and 6-year old grandson, Sam. Coach Madden, who coached the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl victory, is one of the most recognized figures of the NFL, and for decades, his familiar voice has echoed throughout American football stadiums and in the homes of football fans all over the nation. His career highlights include a Super Bowl win, 15 Emmy Awards for his contributions to the broadcasting industry, and induction into the Pro Football Hall of fame in recognition of his coaching career. His sports video games are also familiar sights and sounds in millions of households.
But despite the many and impressive contributions Coach Madden has made to football, his greater contribution to our nation is his dedication to the cause of finding a cure for diabetes. His work is inspired by his grandson Sam, who was recently diagnosed with Type 1, or Juvenile Diabetes—a diagnosis that means, at least for the time being, that his childhood will be far from normal.
As co-chair of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, I was pleased to participate in a press conference on Capitol Hill with Coach Madden to further call attention to this terrible disease. We urged Congress to renew the Special Diabetes Program, which is credited with helping the medical community achieve major advancements, resulting in tangible improvements in the lives of Americans who are living with diabetes. But if this crucial program is not renewed, federal support for Type 1 diabetes will be cut by 35 percent.
Diabetes—both Types 1 and 2—affects as estimated 21 million Americans, including more than 77,000 right here in Maine. Diabetes imposes an enormous personal toll on individuals and families. Throughout my time in the Senate, I have devoted a great deal of time to increasing awareness of diabetes and to supporting increased funding for research that will lead to better treatments and, some day, a cure.
Every Congress, I chair the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Childen’s Congress to take a close look at this terrible disease. I have heard dozens of heart-wrenching stories about how the lives of so many children and their parents are changed forever upon a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis. A number of children from Maine have testified before my committee. They describe their daily lives of insulin shots, strict diets, and constant monitoring of blood sugar. In fact, a child with Type 1 diabetes will have to take on average, over 50,000 insulin shots in a lifetime. An abnormal insulin level can be life-threatening.
Sam Madden is no exception. Coach Madden described the challenges that Sam and his parents face every day, many of which are hard for such a young person to understand. But despite his young age, Sam does understand that he can make a difference in the lives of other Americans who suffer from diabetes. According to Coach Madden, Sam insisted on cutting a family vacation short at Disney World just to be in Washington, to take a stand to help find a cure for diabetes.
Thankfully, there is some good news for people with diabetes. Since I founded the Senate Diabetes Caucus in 1997, funding for diabetes has more than tripled from $319 million to more than a billion dollars last year.
And as a consequence, we have seen some encouraging breakthroughs in diabetes research, and we are on the threshold of a number of important new discoveries.
For example, a new drug has been shown in clinical trials to stabilize or reverse the progression of Type 1 diabetes, demonstrating for the first time that the clinical course of the disease can be altered. Advances in technology, like continuous glucose sensors, are helping patients better control their blood glucose levels, which is essential to preventing diabetes complications. These advances are also moving us closer to our longer-term goal of an artificial pancreas. And drugs originally designed for cancer therapy are showing tremendous potential for treating diabetic eye disease, the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults.
This is clearly no time to take our foot off the accelerator. We have two choices, we can sit back and continue to pay the bills and endure the suffering, or we can aggressively pursue a national strategy aimed at curing this terrible disease. The Special Diabetes Program expires next year, and we need to act now to renew the funding.
During my Committee’s hearing last June, I asked Dr. Griffin Rodgers, the director of the lead institute on diabetes at the NIH, what the impact of diabetes research at the NIH would be if Congress failed to renew the funding for the Special Diabetes Program. Dr. Griffin told the Committee that the expiration of the special funding program will have a “significant impact” on research, causing the NIH to “eliminate or greatly curtail” many of their initiatives that currently hold great promise for people with diabetes and their families. He also stressed the importance of extending the program this year since the NIH is reluctant to start long-term projects, particularly clinical trials, when there is any uncertainty about future funding.
Last spring, 64 Senators joined me in sending a letter to the Senate Leadership seeking an extension and increased funding for the Special Diabetes Program for Type 1 diabetes and Native American and Alaska Native populations. So clearly, this program has strong bipartisan support.
In addition to the widespread support in Congress, the support of individuals like Coach Madden will help further the efforts to someday find a cure for diabetes. Despite the national sports hero that he is, Coach Madden described himself as just a grandfather who wanted to help his grandson. Sam is also a hero and an inspiration to this important cause.
Wouldn’t it be great if one day we could tell Sam that we had a cure for diabetes and that he and his grandfather helped in that effort?
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