Program co-ordinator Kim Gallant has had diabetes for 23 years.Program co-ordinator Kim Gallant has had diabetes for 23 years. (CBC)

The Native Council of P.E.I. has launched a letter-writing to campaign to save one of the country’s oldest diabetes programs aimed at aboriginals.

Native people are are three to five times more likely than the general population to develop diabetes. The reason is believed to be changes in traditional diet and a more sedentary lifestyle from when native people hunted and gathered their own food.

The native council’s diabetes program is the longest-running in the country under Health Canada’s Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative, but funding hasn’t been renewed. It’s set to run out next month.

The issue is close to the heart of program co-ordinator Kim Gallant, who has had diabetes for 23 years.

“After my second child I got gestational diabetes and it just never went away,” Gallant told CBC News Thursday.

Gallant works with 80 diabetics across the Island, getting them to exercise and eat a healthy diet. The council also runs a food co-op, bulk buying fresh fruit and vegetables so members can buy for less.

“A lot of our members, one of their reasons why they don’t eat healthy is because they can’t afford to eat healthy,” said Gallant.

Lately, the diabetes program has been focusing on youth prevention, as more and more teenagers are being diagnosed with the disease.

But the future of all of these programs is now in question, and the Native Council is urging people to write to federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq asking her to renew funding.