Type 1 Diabetes: Infant Testing Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Marie Rimmer
Main Page: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)Department Debates - View all Marie Rimmer's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 day, 7 hours ago)
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Ms Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this evening, Sir Alec—for the first time as well. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for securing this important debate.
Let me tell the Chamber about Gracie, a little girl from the historic village of Newton-le-Willows in St Helens, in the north-west of England. In November 2018, Gracie was only one year old when she was rushed to hospital. Only days earlier, she had been excited about her first Halloween party, dressed as cowgirl Jessie—a very enjoyable day was had by all. Gracie’s parents thought that she simply had a cough and cold, but within hours she became desperately ill. By the time her parents got to her GP the next morning, Gracie was lethargic, vomiting and soon became unresponsive. A quick finger-prick test in the hospital revealed the truth: undiagnosed type 1 diabetes and diabetic ketoacidosis. Doctors later told her parents that Gracie had been just 15 minutes away from dying, just like that.
Thankfully, Gracie survived, and today she is thriving, but her family’s story had not ended there. They had to fight to access the life-changing diabetes technology that helps to keep little children like Gracie safe. They are still fighting hard to change the law so that access to this technology is no longer determined by postcode but is available to all who need it. Gracie’s story has a happy ending, but many families are not so fortunate. That is why I join colleagues today in calling for funding so that infants can be offered routine testing for type 1 diabetes.
It is right to recognise that the Government have not ignored this challenge. NHS England has established a national task and finish group bringing together leading clinicians, researchers and experts to assess the opportunities and challenges for a national diabetes screening programme. The early surveillance for autoimmune diabetes or ELSA study is exploring the feasibility and the benefits of screening for type 1 diabetes, from newborns all the way to late teenagers. The recent findings of the first half of the study reveal that a type 1 diabetes autoantibody childhood screening programme is workable in the real world. I welcome that work and thank those involved in getting this far. However, I hope that evidence from studies like ELSA will reinforce the lesson from Gracie’s story: that early detection saves lives.
Gracie’s story is a happy one, but too many others end in tragedy. We have the opportunity to prevent this, to detect the disease earlier, to protect children sooner and to spare families the trauma that Gracie’s parents endured. We must act now to ensure that Gracie’s story is remembered as a warning, not repeated as a tragedy. I do not think the country can afford not to go ahead.