Dr Sheila Reith CBE Wins Lifetime Achievement Award at Pride of Britain Awards

The motion

That the Parliament congratulates Dr Sheila Reith CBE, who co-invented the world's first insulin pen, on winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pride of Britain Awards; understands that Dr Reith invented the insulin pen, Penject, in 1983, after growing frustrated with the difficulties that arose from injecting her family member who had type 1 diabetes; recognises that Dr Reith was a consultant physician at Glasgow Southern General Hospital at the time of her invention, and was instrumental in promoting multidisciplinary care for people with diabetes at a time when this was not common practice, and went on to develop a diabetes education centre at Stirling Royal Infirmary, which had a dedicated diabetes nurse specialist alongside dieticians, chiropodists and a clinical psychologist; notes that Dr Reith worked with Dr John Ireland and Dr John Paton to design the insulin pen, with assistance from Diabetes UK, which, in 1981, funded 100 prototype pens, 5,000 insulin cartridges and research costs to make the first trial of the insulin pen possible; understands that this trial involved 76 people with diabetes and showed that the insulin pen was accurate, reliable and easy to use; praises the work of Dr Reith, and commends her for her work, which it believes has left an important legacy that improves the lives of diabetics globally.

No recorded vote on this motion. Most motions are never debated, and many that are debated are agreed without a division. Vote records are published from 2011.

SNP 13 Con 10 Lab 2

Party shown is each supporter’s party when the motion was published.

No contribution in the Official Report cites S6M-14989 by reference.