Kerry Rea (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to talk about a very special young man who lives in the electorate of Bonner. His name is Joshua Burton. Joshua is a sufferer of juvenile diabetes and he is also a youth ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Joshua and his family deserve to be praised on the public record because of their tireless work to raise the awareness that is needed around this terrible disease, to encourage more in our community to be aware of the significant impact that suffering from juvenile diabetes has on many young people in Australia today, and to support the foundation and many others who are trying desperately to find a cure for this life-threatening and debilitating illness.

As many people are aware, we talk a lot about diabetes in our community today. We talk about it in the context of the need for a healthier lifestyle, changing our diets and being more physically active, as a way to prevent the onset of diabetes. Juvenile diabetes is often caught up in that discussion and that campaign, but juvenile diabetes is quite different. It is not a lifestyle caused disease; it is in fact a disease that we do not understand. If we did, we would certainly develop a cure for it. It is not because of the way these children live, it is not because of what they eat—it is a disease that they have developed from childhood and so it is one that they have no control over. We must as a community support the foundation and these young people and their families in looking for a cure. Unfortunately, there are around 1,000 young people—that is, children under 18—diagnosed each year with juvenile diabetes. It is something that we in our very modern and technologically and medically advanced society could focus more on, not just as a government but as the community, to try and raise the much-needed funds to find a cure.

I had the privilege of participating in the walk for a cure event that occurred on 12 October. I was there with Joshua and his family, walking on a very pleasant and sunny Brisbane Sunday morning. This was a tremendous way for people to raise awareness about this very important foundation and the work that it does.

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