If there’s a will, I want to be in it.” This catchphrase might well have been coined by American comedian W.C. Fields but Diabetes Jersey, like so many other local charities, occasionally receives gifts in wills which help very significantly to enable the charity to maintain services to its beneficiaries.
Making a will can be difficult since it is a reminder of our own mortality. Nevertheless, from this charity’s point of view, a gift in a will can make a real difference as to how it can support people with diabetes. Gifts in legacies enable Diabetes Jersey to undertake projects for the benefit of those with the condition that could not otherwise be contemplated.
Diabetes Jersey is a Jersey-registered charity (No. 110) and a member of the Association of Jersey Charities. It was established as an independent charity in Jersey in 2004, having previously operated as the local branch of the British Diabetic Association, later Diabetes UK. Although funds were raised in the Island, its branch status meant they could not be spent locally. The charity was therefore created to support people in Jersey living with diabetes and to raise the funds needed for that work, all of which are spent in the Island.
Diabetes occurs where the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood is too high. The hormone insulin is the vital ingredient which the body produces to control the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood. Sugar in some form exists is almost everything we consume. Fortunately, most of us can rely on our pancreas to release enough insulin to keep the sugar level within healthy limits. But for some of us, the pancreas either does not function at all or does so imperfectly.
Diabetes is generally classified as either Type 1 or Type 2.
Type 1 exists where the pancreas ceases to produce insulin, and the vital hormone must be injected. Type 1 can be diagnosed at a very early age and once confirmed cannot be cured. A child so diagnosed will have to inject for the rest of his or her life.
Type 2 occurs when the pancreas progressively produces insufficient insulin to maintain a healthy sugar level. Type 2 tends to be diagnosed later in life and may be treated by diet, medication or, ultimately, insulin injection.
In Jersey around 4,500 people have diabetes of which circa ten per cent are Type 1. Statistically that number is increasing at a rate of one person every day (mostly with Type 2).
Diabetes Jersey’s chairman Bill O’Brien, says, “Obviously while we cannot rely on gifts in wills as a regular source of income, when they are received, they make a valuable contribution towards the funds we use to pay for diabetes services at the Enid Quenault Health and Wellbeing Centre and also to raise public awareness of the condition. Gifts in wills help the charity achieve its objectives to support the people of Jersey with diabetes in some way or other.
