Next month, Christian Fauria will be on WEEI for 25 hours straight in an effort to raise $125,000 for the American Diabetes Association.
He expounds on the personal importance of the issue to him and his family in a letter to the editor that was published Friday in the Boston Globe.
Fauria's son, Caleb, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2019. The two-time Super Bowl champion begins his letter with an anecdote about his first trip to the hospital pharmacy after his son's diagnosis. That was when Fauria was first confronted with the exorbitant price of insulin, the life-saving hormone that lowers the level of glucose in the blood.
"The real education began at the hospital pharmacy," writes Fauria. "There was a couple that was arguing. The girlfriend begged, 'You can't leave. You'll die.' And the guy responded, 'What do you want me to do? I can't afford it.' They were talking about the insulin he needs to live. He left without it."
A new study found that in 2021, one in five adults in the U.S. with diabetes either skipped, delayed or used less insulin than was needed to save money. Without generic competition, a handful of pharmaceutical companies are able to keep prices for insulin at astronomical levels.
Fauria says his son's prescription cost $1,500. Thankfully, he's blessed with good health insurance. But millions of Americans aren't.
Raising money for diabetes research can save countless lives. Fauria's Crusade for a Cure begins Nov. 16 at 2:00 p.m. on WEEI.
