Top paediatrician helps UK charity roll out diabetes education across South-East Asia

A top Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist has helped revolutionise type 1 diabetes care among children and young people in deprived communities across South-East Asia (SEA).

Action4Diabetes is the only UK-based charity providing comprehensive partnership programmes with defined local diabetes clinics, which guarantees ongoing supplies of free insulin, blood glucose meters and hospital emergency funds, and which actively tracks HbA1c outcomes across the majority of supported countries in SEA.

The organisation is focused on making sustainable and scalable progress in the battle to provide quality type 1 diabetes healthcare in resource-limited countries across SEA

Associate Professor May Ng, who is also Chair of the Association of the Children’s Diabetes Clinicians (ACDC) has helped to successfully roll out new programmes across the regions as part of her work with the charity Action4Diabetes (A4D).

As A4D’s only voluntary Chief Medical Advisor, Professor Ng’s role involves providing advice, training and educational support for healthcare professionals in SEA.

Professor Ng, who grew up in Malaysia, understands the unique challenges of the SEA region. As part of role within the charity she leads on clinical, research and educational projects with other healthcare professionals in SEA.

Professor Ng said: “A4D’s mission is to save and empower children and young people with type 1 diabetes in deprived communities across SEA by providing them with access to essential healthcare and education.

“In many of these resource-limited countries, poverty, insufficient infrastructure and lack of professional knowledge may often lead to scarce insulin availability and poor access to diabetes education.

“As a result, children with type 1 diabetes in these settings often have an extremely poor diabetes outcomes and are frequently misdiagnosed, develop complications and die prematurely.”

A key part of A4D’s strategy is to partner directly with government clinics, to ensure its programmes are executed properly.

Since its 2015 launch, A4D has grown and now operates in seven different countries in the SEA region.

Keeping costs to a minimum, A4D is able to provide a disadvantaged young person with essential type 1 diabetes care for just £35 per month.

Professor Ng said: “We are currently supporting more than 500 people across the SEA region in a sustainable and responsible way. Although we have the workable programmes and the business culture to offer far more support, we now need involvement from outside the region to tackle the huge need that SEA presents.”

To read an article about A4D in Diabetes Care, click here.

For more information about A4D, click here.