A family legacy
Through an endowed fund and gifts in their Will, a family of donors is giving back year after year to support diabetes research that’s close to their hearts.
Right now, more than 5.8 million people in Canada are living with a type of diabetes – and the prevalence just keeps rising. But St. Joseph’s research teams are studying diabetes at the cellular level to build a better of understanding of the disease and advance care. This work is only possible thanks to the generosity and vision of donors like the Grainger family.
The late Dr. Wayne Grainger and Dianne Grainger created The Noelle Sue Grainger Memorial Fund for Diabetes Research to honour the memory of their daughter Noelle Sue who passed away in 1984. The Fund was established through memorial donations from family and friends.
Dr. Grainger, who recently passed, had a wish to advance important medical research. Thanks to a gift he made in his Will to this special fund, his legacy will impact families in London and beyond.
Recently, the fund supported Savita Dhanvantari, PhD, an imaging researcher studying cells to uncover ways to improve blood sugar control.
Dhanvantari is interested in the interaction of hormones in the body and their role in chronic diseases like diabetes. She has a personal connection to the disease, too: her brother-in-law lives with type 1 diabetes and some members of her family have type 2.
“Our lab takes the approach that diabetes is a disease of more than one hormone,” Dhanvantari says.
It’s believed that diabetes is the result of not only a deficiency of insulin, but also excess secretion of the hormone glucagon. She is using high-resolution microscopes to look inside pancreatic alpha cells to see if it’s possible to control the secretion of glucagon.
Right now, they are the only research group in the world studying a novel protein that is found in glucagon-secreting cells. Some of the lab’s future projects include a study at the cellular level of the role cannabis plays in glucagon secretion.
Dhanvantari is grateful for donor gifts, like the Fund launched by the Graingers, that allow her research team to keep moving forward.
“Donor support has been hugely important,” she says. “Donors understand the value of basic science discoveries that then feed into a pipeline of clinical care. They have been very instrumental to our success.”
Leaving a Gift in Your Will
A gift in your will is a wonderful way to honour care that treats the whole person - body, mind and, spirit.