Carol Ann Hawk

7661 South 2550 West

West Jordan, UT 84084
435.414.5374
redtailhawk19@gmail.com

January 24, 2018

Sir Frederick Banting

Doctor, University of Toronto
125 Sherwood Forest Square London,
Ontario, N6G 2C3 Canada

Dear Sir Frederick Banting:

“Insulin is not a cure for diabetes; it is a treatment. It enables the diabetic to burn sufficient carbohydrates,
so that proteins and fats may be added to the diet in sufficient quantities to provide energy for the
economic burdens of life.” This is a quote you said about diabetes, and you hoped that there would be a
cure.

My name is Carol Ann Hawk, and I live in the year 2018. I was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes on my
tenth birthday. Insulin changed my life forever; it became my life support, literally. I believe I was around
the age of fourteen when I learned your name and how it was connected to insulin.

I ran across a picture of a girl whose body was just skin and bones—her body forced to starve itself to
survive. The picture caption read: “Before insulin” and was taken in 1920’s. I did not get that thin, but it
was pretty bad. Then I saw the picture that said: “After insulin” and the girl looked healthy and alive
again. I began to research how insulin was invented and found the names of the collaborators: Sir
Frederick Banting, a physician; Charles H. Best, a med student; James B. Collip, a chemist; and J.J.R.
Macleod, a physiologist.

I was amazed by the amount of work and time that went into making animal insulin for human patients in
1921. Diabetes has been around as far as we know since the time of ancient Egyptians. In the 1600’s,
diabetes was even called “The pissing evil.” I was very impressed that you and your team found a
working therapy for a disease that has been around for about 3500 years. I would not be alive if not for
your invention. I would have died at age ten years old. My family would have lost a daughter and a sister.

I admire your generous spirit of wanting to make sure every diabetic had access to your life-saving
invention. You sold the rights to producing insulin to the university of Toronto for $1 a piece. That was a
kind thing you did. I am sorry that the people who now hold the right to producing insulin do not share
your kindness. Charging life-saving medication at a 600% markup just because they can, is a shame to
your legacy.
You inspire me to make things better. I want to become an endocrinologist and find a cure. I want to find
it, and I hope I can be as generous with it as you were with your gift of making sure everyone had access
to your medication.

Sincerely,

Carol Ann Hawk