IN YOUR letters page on May 6, Joe Pasquale talks about diabetes and its seriousness and I would like to praise him for bringing this illness to the fore.

I don’t know how many times I have been approached by people collecting for all the other well publicised charities, yet we never hear of diabetes.

Every time someone shakes a tin at me, I register it and when it has happened say 20 times I send Diabetes UK a cheque. However, one day a woman shook her tin at me and I registered it in my mind but ignored her.

She went on to shout after me: “Well, thank you very much – it is for children in hospital.”

I went back and explained why I didn’t put any money in her tin and that Diabetes UK would be the only benefactor to my contributions, and left her with a very red face.

Television shows where celebrities give their winnings to a charity never seem to feature Diabetes UK and it is little known, yet is it a very debilitating and life-threatening condition, as I well know because my granddaughter has it.

Sylvia Dunn, Rutland Close, Copmanthorpe, York.