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The One Million Dollar Challenge: "Can You Meet It?" Asks Genovese Drug Chain?

Diabetes Facts
Research Funding Facts

The Genovese Family has a challenge for Long Island businesses and community members. All it takes is money and a genuine devotion to a charitable cause - finding a cure for diabetes and its complications.

The Genovese Family is the founder of the Genovese Drug Store Chain, the leading retail pharmaceutical chain in the metropolitan New York City area, and they have just donated $1 million to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (JDFI). They are asking their business contemporaries and members of the Long Island community to match the company's donation. "Can You Meet The Challenge?" They ask.

Representives from JDFI presented the Genovese family with a plaque for their generous contribution at an official press conference and holiday luncheon celebrated on December 2 at 12 noon at the Genovese Corporate Headquarters in Melville, Long Island. The luncheon featured Mary Tyler Moore, the International Chairman of JDFI, along with other distinguished guests, including Robert Wood Johnson IV, Chairman of JDFI, and Dr. James E. Mulvihill, President and CEO, JDFI.

The $1 million dollar donation to JDFI is in the memory of two Genovese family members who were victims of the disease: Joseph Genovese, Sr., died from complications of having the disease since age 57, and Joseph Genovese, Jr. died at the age of 47 after he was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 13. Joseph Sr. was the father of President and CEO Chairman Leonard Genovese and Joseph, Jr., was his brother.

The deaths of Genovese family members have sparked this genuine call to action for the large, extended family, to help find a cure for this disease which threatens some 16 million americans. The $1 million contribution will go directly to JDFI's $200 Million International Initiative, "The Only Remedy is a Cure" Campaign to establish The Joseph Genovese Family Diabetes Research Program at Columbia University. The Campaign, which has raised more than $153 million since its inception in 1990, is the most ambitious research enterprise in diabetes history. It has pioneered partnerships between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and JDFI, teaming world-class diabetes researchers with top scientists in diverse disciplines such as molecular biology, genetics, immunology, transplantation, and cell biology. Working in established medical centers and research institutions, scientists apply their specialized knowledge to the study of prevention, better treatment and a cure for diabetes and its complications.

In addition to the $1 million dollar donation to JDFI, the Genovese family has also raised nearly $400,000 over the past four years through the annual JDF Walk - A -Thon. "It's a way for the Genovese family to give back to our communities which have supported us over the years," says Mr Genovese. Genovese Drug Stores, Inc., was founded in 1924 by Joseph Genovese, Sr., and has since grown to include 133 stores in the tri-state area.

Leonard Genovese believes he has a lot to be thankful for. "I am also grateful for the fact that our family has been successful in business, and perhaps most important - that we have our health today. What attracted me most to JDFI, aside from personal traumas my family has faced due to diabetes, is the fact that they are truly dedicated to finding a cure for this dreadful disease. Hopefully, our donation will assist in this goal."

The mission of the JDFI is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. JDFI, with chapters from coast to coast and affiliates around the world, gives more money to diabetes research than any other non-profit, non-governmental health agency in the world.

JDFI is one of the many organizations which Leonard Genovese holds dear to his heart. He also serves on the boards of the National Center for Disability and St. Christopher Ottilie, both social service agencies in New York. His nephew, Lenny F. Genovese, an assistant vice president, serves on the board of JDFI for the Nassau-Suffolk Chapter.

DIABETES FACTS


Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder that adversely affects the body's ability to manufacture or use insulin, a hormone necessary to permit the body to use food as energy.

The World Health Organization estimates that there are approximately 120 million people with diabetes worldwide. This number will double by the year 2025.

In the United States 15.7 million people have diabetes.

  • There are 10.3 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes, and a new case is diagnosed every 39.5 seconds.
  • Another 5.4 million Americans have the disease but are undiagnosed.
  • Diabetes significantly increases an individuals chance of premature death and often changes his lifestyle dramatically.


There are two major types of diabetes: Type 1 (insulin-dependent, early onset or juvenile diabetes) and Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent, or maturity onset-diabetes). In Type 1, the body produces no insulin. In Type 2, the body produces insulin, but does not use it effectively.

  • The federal government estimates that there are approximately 1,000,000 people diagnosed with insulin-dependent (Type 1). Type 1 diabetes is often called juvenile diabetes because its onset is usually before age 30. It is considered an autoimmune disease.
  • In order to stay alive, people with insulin-dependent diabetes must inject themselves with insulin up to six times a day and check their blood glucose level up to eight times a day.
  • Diabetes treatment takes one to three hours a day. Over a lifetime, the average individual with Type 1 diabetes will spend close to 60,000 hours doing self-treatment.
  • There are approximately 9.3 million people diagnosed with non-insulin dependent (Type 2) diabetes. This disease usually develops in adults over age 40. Some 40 percent of these patients require some insulin to manage their diabetes.

Diabetes is a contributing factor of death from other major diseases. Diabetes alone is a leading cause of death by the disease.

  • The life expectancy of people with diabetes averages 20 years less than that of people without diabetes. Middle-aged people with diabetes have a death rate twice as high as middle-age people without diabetes.
  • Adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates about 2 to 4 times as high as that of adults without diabetes.
  • People with diabetes are 2 to 4 times more likely to have a stroke.
  • Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease, accounting for more than 40% of new cases. It is also the primary cause of non-congenital kidney disease, accounting for one-forth of all new cases.
  • The death rate among infants born to mothers with diabetes is two to three times as high as for women without diabetes.


Diabetes can cause life-changing disability.

  • More than half of all leg amputations in the U.S. are due to diabetes.
  • Diabetes is the leading cause of new blindness among adults 20 to 74 years.
  • About 60 to 70 percent of people with diabetes have mild to severe nerve damage.


Diabetes affects all ethnic and racial groups.

  • Caucasians: 7.8%
  • Mexican Americans: 10.6%
  • African Americans: 10.8%
  • American Indians: ranging from 5% to 50%
  • Other Hispanic/Latino Americans: almost twice as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites of similar age.


One out of every four Medicare dollars is spent on diabetes or its complications, and one out of every seven dollars spent on health care annually in the U.S. is spent on it.

  • U.S. health care expenditures for people with diabetes exceed $130 billion.
  • Total direct and indirect cost (disability; work loss; premature death) of diabetes care costs Medicare $28.6 billion annually.
  • The average lifetime costs of diabetes for a child diagnosed at age three is $600,000.

    Sources:
      Diabetes Statistics, NIDDK, 1996 Diabetes in America, 1995 Lewin VHI Study, 1994 World Health Organization, 1994 Revised November 17, 1997


INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH FUNDING FACTS


The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International was founded in 1970 by parents of children with diabetes who were convinced that diabetes could be cured through research. They were and still are determined to make that cure happen in their children's lifetime.

The mission of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (JDFI) is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. JDFI, with chapters from coast to coast and affiliates around the world, gives more money to diabetes research than any other non-profit, non-governmental health agency in the world.

  • In 1997, JDFI awarded $28 million to diabetes research worldwide.
  • Since its founding in 1970, JDFI has given approximately $250 million to diabetes research.
  • Through its unique peer and lay review system, JDFI funds the most promising research worldwide. This year alone, 348 research grants were awarded to scientists in 15 countries on four continents, including 29 states in the U.S. and four provinces in Canada.
  • JDFI is international in its fund raising scope as well, with U.S. chapters and international affiliates in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.

JDFI has leveraged its research impact by stimulating increased research spending on the part of other public and private entities.

  • In 27 years, JDFI has been instrumental in persuading the U.S. government to increase its diabetes research funding from $18 million to $350 million.
  • In 1990, JDFI pioneered public/private partnerships that match government funding with private gifts. The Only Remedy Is a Cure Campaign, the international major gift initiative that initiated these partnerships, passed its $100 million goal within five years. A new goal of $200 million has been set by the end of the year 2000.
  • JDFI collaborates with four institutions of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, The Medical Research Councils of Canada and Australia, along with corporate friends and individual donors. JDFI has created programs that bring leading diabetes researchers together with scientists from many institutions and from many disciplines such as microbiology, immunology, molecular genetics, biology and transplantation, to find a cure for diabetes and its complications.


Source:
    Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International - Department of Finance and Administration.


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