Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I had the privilege of meeting with one of my constituents, Ms Peta Hendy. Peta has had type 1 diabetes for coming up to 20 years, as have many of her family members, and, sadly, they've also lost family to this terrible illness for which there is no cure. Peta came to see me about the DANII Foundation's desire to extend access to the life-saving continuous glucose monitoring technology, or CGM, to all of those with type 1 diabetes who are in very high risk areas—some 3,000 or 4,000.

The DANII Foundation was formed in 2012, after the tragic and unnecessary death of a type 1 diabetic, Daniella Meads Barlow, at the tender age of 17, as a result of nocturnal hypoglycaemia, or dead-in-bed syndrome. DANII is the leading Australian foundation for the prevention of life-threatening dead-in-bed syndrome and is dedicated to improving the safety and quality of the lives of type 1 diabetes sufferers.

Currently, access to the CGM device costs users about $100 a week, and a machine which works in conjunction with CGM to provide microdialysis costs over $10,000. But this technology allows type 1 diabetes sufferers to go to bed without fear of dying in their sleep—potentially, for the first time since being diagnosed—because this technology can raise the alarm and take action. This government has extended this technology to those under 21, and I ask the Minister for Health to look at further extending this to very, very high risk sufferers. I commend and support the work of the DANII Foundation.