Video: ‘Everyone Deserves Access to the Care They Need To Live A Full, Healthy Life’
For World Diabetes Day, MLS' Andy Rose and PWHPA's Anissa Gamble share how diabetes affects their lives as athletes.
We are excited to partner with Athletes For Hope to raise awareness of the importance of diabetes care and elevate the voices of athletes who haven’t let their diagnosis slow them down.
Our World Diabetes Day 2021 ambassadors, MLS star Andy Rose and PWHPA hockey player Anissa Gamble, agree: it’s not OK that millions of people around the world do not have access to diabetes care.
“It has only helped my career because I am so in tune with my body now. I have had to persevere and learned so many lessons along the way, the most important being discipline,” says Andy Rose, Defender for the Vancouver Whitecaps.
>> Read: “Be Kind To Yourself: How Diabetes Shaped MLS Star Andy Rose On and Off the Field”
“Living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes is really lonesome. You can have these support mechanisms around you, but at the end of the day it’s based on your decisions and what you’re doing. I love team sports for this reason. You really do need a team around you,” says Anissa Gamble, Forward for the Professional Women’s Hockey Player Association.
>> Read: “You Can Do Anything With Diabetes: Q&A With PWHPA Hockey Player Anissa Gamble”
Diabetes is an urgent global health crisis that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. More than 1.5 million people die from diabetes every year, the majority in low- and middle-income countries where essential medicines like insulin may be completely out of reach. Everyone deserves access to the care and support they need to live a full, healthy life, and access to diabetes care must be made available to everyone, everywhere.
This World Diabetes Day, we stand with the World Diabetes Federation to say that access to diabetes care must be made available to everyone, everywhere.