Today is World Diabetes Day, recognized every November 14 in honour of Sir Frederick Banting – one of the doctors who discovered insulin back in 1921 at the University of Toronto.

Before the discovery of insulin, a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes was a death sentence with those diagnosed – usually children and teens – only given a few months to live under a strict diet.

Banting led a team comprised of Charles Best, James Collip and J.J.R. Macleod in the discovery. Banting and Macleod were later recognized with the Nobel Prize in Medicine and ended up splitting the prize with Best and Collip.

The patent for insulin was sold for $1, with Banting famously quoted saying “insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.”

According to Diabetes Canada, over 5.8 million Canadians are livin

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