Canadian Diabetes Association, Newmarket, ON

The Canadian Diabetes Association leads the fight against diabetes by helping those affected by diabetes live healthy lives, preventing the onset and consequences of diabetes, and discovering a cure. In 1920, Dr. Frederick Banting was working as a medical practitioner based in London, Ontario, when he first conceived the idea of extracting insulin from a pancreas to treat diabetes. After several months of experimentation, and with the assistance of Charles Best, insulin was eventually purified for human use. The first successful test on a human patient with diabetes occurred on January 23, 1922. The death sentence for diabetes sufferers around the world had finally been lifted. With new hope at hand, Dr. Best realized that the growing numbers of Canadians with diabetes were going to require an organization to serve their needs. In the late 1940s, the Diabetic Association of Ontario was formed.