For a surprisingly moving tour of the birthplace of an idea that has saved millions of lives around the world, Banting House is a must see in London. It was here, in the middle of a fateful night in 1920, that Dr. Frederick G. Banting scribbled 25 words that led him and other scientists to discover insulin. 

Banting went on to become Canada’s first Nobel Prize winner, and accomplished a ton during his relatively short 49 years. Few people know that Banting created the world’s first G-suit to help pilots cope with high-speed flight, or that he honed his painting skills with the Group of Seven’s A. Y. Jackson. Even today, art collectors put ads in the Globe and Mail seeking these works, and many of them are on display at Banting House.

Curator Grant Maltman, who oddly enough went to a school named after Banting, is a passionate and effective storyteller who has been moved to tears by what happens when people step in Banting’s room or sit on his bed. He says many people who’ve been touched by diabetes make a sort of pilgrimage to the house, such as a young mother who learned her baby was diabetic. The woman sat on Banting’s bed and cried and cried. However, when Maltman offered her tissues, she refused. She gathered herself up and said she was finished crying. The idea that came from this room, she explained to the curator, meant that her child would live, and so she wouldn’t be needing tissues anymore.

A tour takes around 45 minutes, tissues included.

Admission is $5 per person or $12 for a family of five.

diabetes.ca