Diabetes Association given donation by family of man mauled by jaguar

Bruce Cullerton was mauled by Max the jaguar twenty four hours after hurricane Richard in October. Max’s cage was destroyed by a tree that fell when the eye of the hurricane swept over the Western Highway at the house of Richard Foster, a filmographer for the National Geographic. Cullerton was suffering from diabetes for many years and his battle would have eventually meant receiving treatment in the USA but tragically, he never made it and was killed on the day he was scheduled to travel. Bruce’s father, Brian Cullerton, hopes to keep his memory alive by encouraging friends and businesses to give to the Belize Diabetes Association. Cullerton handed over a cheque and equipment to the association which he says are the first of more to come.

Brian Cullerton, Father of Man Mauled by a Jaguar

Brian Cullerton

“This is the beginning in an ongoing series of donations to be made to the Belize Diabetes Association in the memory of my son, Bruce Cullerton who died so tragically a couple weeks ago at the hands of an escaped jaguar. Bruce suffered from diabetes for thirty years. He was on the verge of returning to the states for medical attention because it had developed complications that were unable to be dealt with here, but he didn’t want to go and now he doesn’t have to.

bruce cullerton

But in his memory, he has many friends that’s he’d helped during the eighteen years that he lived here in Belize. He made contributions, his family and friends in Washington State have also made contributions. It’s the result of those that has allowed us to donate this overhead projector to the Diabetes Association for use in their public education and outreach program and also a gift of Twelve hundred and fifty dollars Belize from local donations with another seven thousand to come. His family and friends in Washington State are shipping diabetes monitors and test strips on an ongoing basis with the first shipment already coming.”

Anthony Castillo, President, Belize Diabetes Association

Anthony Castillo

“On behalf of the Belize Diabetes Association, members and supporters, I must say a big thanks the family of the late Bruce Cullerton for making this kind contribution to the Association. And the equipment, the L.C.D. projector, will be used to do our outreach presentation. We need to do outreach every so often to share the word on diabetes and this equipment will be used to do our presentation. At this time we are focusing on our children. There is a need for us to look at our children even with type 1 diabetes and we’ll increase our outreach that relate to the schools and children living with diabetes. The funds will be used primarily to provide strips, monitors as Mister Cullerton said earlier and also to a small extent to assist with insulin.”