Frederick Banting

Hello! My name is Frederick Banting, but my friends called me Fred. When I was a little boy, I lived on a farm in Canada. I loved playing outside and taking care of the animals. I always knew that when I grew up, I wanted to help people feel better.

So, I became a doctor! I learned how to help people who were sick or hurt. I felt very sad for people, especially children, who had an illness called diabetes. It made them very weak. I had a big, big idea about how I could help them. I thought a special secret juice from inside the body could make them strong again.

I couldn't do it alone, so I asked my friends for help. I worked with a smart young man named Charles Best in a laboratory all summer long in 1921. Our boss, John Macleod, gave us a place to work and some puppies to help us with our research. We worked very hard, day and night, trying to find that secret juice.

And guess what? We did it! We found the special medicine and we named it insulin. The first person we helped was a young boy named Leonard Thompson in 1922. Before our medicine, he was very sick, but after, he got stronger and could play again! It felt like magic, but it was science!

We shared our discovery with the whole world so that anyone who needed insulin could have it. I lived to be 49 years old, and the best part of my life was knowing I helped people. Today, the medicine we discovered, insulin, still helps millions of people all around the world live happy and healthy lives.