Diabetes is surging in Indian Country and shows no sign of abatement. We need to attack this scourge on two fronts.

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It is said that heroes are ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

Someone runs into a burning house to save a life, or swims out to a drowning person. These are acts of heroism that occur at the spur of the moment. But what if you have time to think it over?

When Jim Searson learned that his aunt Monica needed a kidney or she wouldn’t survive, he stepped up and donated his own. That’s a special kind of heroism. He had a chance to think it over and form his own conclusion, and he did the right thing.

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This act of heroism is needed more than ever, since kidney disease is growing rapidly in Indian Country.

A large proportion of kidney disease is a product of diabetes, which is our modern-day epidemic in Indian Country. According to the Diabetes Canada website, five per cent of the general population has diabetes; among off-reserve Indigenous people the rate is two and a half times higher, at 12.7 per cent, and on-reserve people have a rate that is three and a half times higher, at 17.2 per cent.

Diabetes is the elephant in the room and........

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