Today I want to tell you about a miracle that happened almost a hundred years ago, when a group of Canadian researchers saved the lives of many children with diabetes.

You see, back in 1922, diabetes was a death sentence for children. Their bodies could not produce insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. Without insulin, their blood became acidic and toxic, causing a condition called ketoacidosis. This made them very sick, weak and eventually put them into a coma.

On the left, a three-year-old boy starving because his body was not producing insulin, and on the right, a year later, in 1923, the same child after being given insulin.

Many children were hospitalized in a special ward, where they were given only water and starvation diets to try to prolong their lives. But it was hopeless. Most of them died within weeks or months.

But then, something incredible happened. A team of scientists from the University of Toronto, led by Frederick Banting and Charles Best, had discovered a way to extract insulin from animal pancreases. They had tested it on dogs and found that it could lower their blood sugar and reverse their diabetes.

They decided to try it on humans. They visited a hospital in Toronto where they found a ward full of dying children. They injected each child with a dose of insulin and waited.

And then, a miracle. The first child they injected, a three-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson, opened his eyes and smiled. He asked for something to eat. He was alive and well.