EarlyBird Diabetes Trust

Diabetes is a serious disease. It can lead to kidney failure, blindness and limb amputation. Heart attacks are three times more common in people with diabetes. So-called \'adult\' diabetes has reached epidemic proportions and is now beginning to affect teenagers and children. If nothing is done to halt the rise in diabetes, 1 in 5 of today\'s children is likely to get diabetes in their lifetime. That is why 300 schoolchildren and their families are taking part in the EarlyBird Diabetes Study, a 12-year project to find which factors in childhood lead to the development of diabetes in later life. EarlyBird is a unique and important study, based in Plymouth but with nationwide implications for the early prevention of diabetes - but it costs £250,000 a year to run. We need your support and that of your friends, families and employers. EarlyBird is also a resource, available to medical researchers everywhere. The study is gathering unique data on the factors that underlie the early development of diabetes/heart disease (physical activity, energy expenditure, dietary choices and body composition, the influence of those factors on the insulin resistance that underlies disease and the impact of insulin resistance on the markers of disease as children grow and mature. By supporting EarlyBird, you will also support an archive of data and blood samples that will help others, besides ourselves, to unlock the earliest secrets of diabetes\'.