To call for more diabetes research funding, several people got together at the Parliament House in Canberra this week.

They got together to lobby Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the issue.

Camp Hill’s Breanna and mum Melinda along with brother Harry were also among those who had gathered.

Harry, 11, in March 2008, had stood on a chair and pleaded with the Prime Minister to increase subsidies on insulin pumps for type 1 diabetes sufferers at a community cabinet meeting held by Rudd at Narangba State High School.

About 80 per cent of the total purchase price of an insulin pump was covered subsequently.

The siblings with a meeting with Rudd explained why they were desperate to secure funding for a clinical trials network. They said such a network would improve patients’ access to the latest diabetes treatments.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation chief executive Mike Wilson said, “Australia had one of the highest rates of type 1 diabetes in the world, with the number of new cases in children rising by 3 per cent each year.”

According to a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister, $500,000 would be donated by the government to the foundation.

She added, “The Government is committed to providing additional funding to the foundation into the future.”