A TRANSPLANT of insulin-producing cells has enabled a 60-year-old diabetic running enthusiast to take up her hobby again in time to carry the Olympic torch through London at the end of June.
Mary Jenkins, who has suffered Type 1 diabetes for 38 years, had an islet cell transplant that has allowed her to cut her daily intake of insulin from 40 units to just four.
Mrs Jenkins has run ten London marathons and many other long-distance runs, but had been forced to give up for fear of hypoglycaemia — low blood glucose levels that can lead to coma.
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Doctors at King’s College Hospital in London transplanted the insulin-producing islet cells from a donor pancreas into Mrs Jenkins’s liver. Once in the liver the cells develop a blood supply and begin producing insulin.
The disease has not been eliminated but its symptoms are greatly reduced by the operation, which took place under local anaesthetic and is the first of its kind in Britain.
Benet Middleton, chief executive of the charity, Diabetes UK, which funded the operation, said: “I think we are one step closer to a cure.”
Nine centres are involved in the programme pioneered by King’s College hospital to develop islet cell transplantation for diabetic patients.