Today, just as always on 14 February, my favourite vases are empty. It’s not that we forgot Valentine’s Day. It’s because in our house, it’s Spare a Rose Day.

The annual Spare a Rose, Save a Life campaign is about turning love (or lust, or ‘I kinda like you’) in action. Instead of giving flowers, we donate to the campaign that was founded in diabetes community advocacy to provide support to people diagnosed with diabetes in under-resourced settings. The equation has remained the same since the campaign started over ten years ago: for each rose we forgo, insulin is supplied for a month to a person with diabetes. $5 for one month. $60 for a whole year. 

All donations are made directly to Insulin for Life , an organisation doing vital, lifesaving work across the globe. Every cent counts and goes towards saving the lives of people with diabetes. 

It’s a really easy choice for us. Because no one chooses to live with diabetes. And no one chooses to live in a place where a diabetes diagnosis is a death sentence.

Since 2013, our remarkable diabetes community has measured love not by the roses we send, but rather by the ones we don’t. A single rose might fade in a few days, but the impact of sparing one, and making a small donation can be life saving.

If you can, please Spare a Rose today. Just $5 can save a life.