How’s your Christmas shopping going? Have you managed to get it all done and wrapped everything up in beautiful vintage newspaper with contrasting artisanal twine? Have you hand-addressed all the gifts on mistletoe leaves, and had Christmas elves bless the bounty? Have you stuffed everyone’s stockings with scented candles, socks and undies, and photo frames?

Yeah, me neither!

Starting to panic? About to head to a frantically busy shopping centre with a million other disorganised and stressed shoppers? Or have you already popped into a local chemist to clear them out of their toiletries packs?

Well, put down the bath bomb! I can help. And the best bit – you can do it all from your kitchen table, while lounging on the sofa, or sipping an iced latte at your local café, which is what I am doing as I am writing this little post.

Children and adults are dying because they can’t access insulin. I don’t mean to rain down on your Christmas parade or tangle your tinsel, but this is the cold harsh truth. It is happening every single day. I know I don’t have to remind most people who read this blog that insulin is not a new or experimental treatment. You all know that it’s been around for close to 100 years.

Insulin should be easy to come by for every single person in the world who needs it to treat their diabetes, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.

I don’t know about you, but this fact makes me angry and despair.  The idea that people are dying because they cannot access the very drug that I can easily pick up at any chemist in my neighbourhood actually hurts my brain.

But what if you could make a difference and actually get insulin to those in need AND skip department store queues as you line up to pay for some gift that will probably end up being re-gifted in next year’s office Secret Santa? (Don’t look at me like that – we’ve all done it!)

Well, you can, and it’s as simple as making a donation to a charity that is helping to get insulin into the hands – and bodies – of those who need it most. You can make gifts in the name of any or all of your friends and family, and I bet that they will understand why you have forsaken the novelty cup you usually buy them to do this instead.

When anyone asks me what I want for Christmas – and even if they don’t ask – I say ‘Please make a donation to either Insulin for Life or Life for a Child’.

My parents are doing that for me this year, and truly, it is the best present they could give me – I couldn’t be more pleased.

Click image to donate to Insulin for Life

 

Click image to donate to Life for a Child.

No one loses here. You avoid screaming kids and whimpering adults at shopping centres, no one gets a pointless gift they have to pretend to have always wanted. And someone is given the gift of insulin, or rather, the gift of life.

Now that’s the spirit of Christmas!