Join the #BlueBalloonChallenge 2023!
Let’s see your blue balloons fly again! Your support will help us raise awareness for diabetes and gather life-saving funds for people with diabetes across the globe.
Since 2021, Medtronic has donated €200,000 to Life for a Child, supporting children and young adults with diabetes in under-resourced countries with insulin, glucose test strips, and more. Thank you, for being part of it this year and supporting the campaign!
To participate, simply try our Instagram filter or request a balloon to be sent to you. Learn more below.
“Living with diabetes is a constant balancing act. It’s like doing everything in your daily life, while keeping a balloon in the air.”
Want to know what all the blue balloons are about? Watch the new hero movie here:
Make the invisible — visible
Help us make diabetes visible: Try our Instagram filter and a blue balloon will magically appear in your story. For every Instagram story with the #BlueBalloonChallenge filter*, Medtronic will donate €5.00 to Life for a Child! All funds will support children with diabetes in under-resourced countries across the globe: Your €5.00 will help support a child with insulin, glucose strips and more!
This is how it works:
Every time someone performs a #BlueBalloonChallenge, our partner Medtronic will donate €5.00 to Life for a Child*. Here’s how you can take part:
1. TAKE A PHOTO OR VIDEO
Simply take a video or photo of yourself keeping a blue balloon up in the air. If you don’t have a balloon at home, try our Instagram filter or request a balloon to be sent to you. Feel free to get creative — we’re looking forward to what you do with your balloon!
2. SHARE IT
*Important: Share your photo or video on social media using the hashtag #BlueBalloonChallenge. In order to unlock your donation, tag @MedtronicDiabetesEU, @dedoc_org and @lifeforachild!
From 4 October until 30 November 2023, Medtronic will donate €5.00 for each valid participation, up to a total sum of €100,000.00.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The #BlueBalloonChallenge is a joint initiative between #dedoc° and Medtronic in support of Life for a Child. The aim of this campaign is to generate awareness for diabetes and raise funds for people living with diabetes across the globe.
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Until the end of November 2023, our partner Medtronic will donate €5.00 for every Instagram story posted that uses the #BlueBalloonChallenge filter and tags @MedtronicDiabetesEU – up to a total of €100,000.00! The more people participate, the more money we raise for children with diabetes. Please also tag @dedoc_org and @lifeforachild. Thank you for your support!
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#dedoc° is a community for ALL people with diabetes. Every type of diabetes deserves awareness and no type of diabetes deserves discrimination. We explicitly invite people with all types of diabetes to join us. We’re stronger together!
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The #BlueBalloonChallenge filter will make a blue balloon magically appear in your Instagram story!
Click on this link to see the filter, then click “Try it”. As soon as your phone camera detects a face, the filter will add a blue balloon to your story. You can move it around, make it smaller or larger and create both photos and videos. Have fun!
PS: You can also find the filter in the Instagram filter data base under “blue balloon by medtronicita”, in our profile highlights and in many Instagram stories. When you see an account using the filter, it will appear in the top left corner of your screen.
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Instagram filters are fun – but if you want to get more creative across other social media platforms, you can now order blue balloons via mail. Simply fill in this form and we will send you a blue balloon free of charge! Please keep in mind that we are shipping from Germany/Europe and it might take some time to reach you.
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We have made sure that all the balloons we use for this campaign are as environmentally friendly as possible: All the latex balloons are produced from 100% natural latex and are fully biodegradable, similar to the leaf of an oak tree.
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We want to thank everyone who flooded the social media feeds of the diabetes community with thousands of blue balloons since the campaign launched in 2021. We saw each and everyone of you and we couldn’t be more grateful. All of your creativity and dedication has made the #BlueBalloonChallenge a huge success. Thanks to you, our generous partner Medtronic has donated a total of €200,000.00 to the organization Life for a Child. With this donation, Life for a Child was able to support hundreds of children with access to better treatment for their diabetes.
Thank you all joining us in the #BlueBalloonChallenge - and more than that, for making it your own. We are proud to have partnered with Medtronic and Life for a Child on this project, but we are even more proud of what the blue balloon has become. Let's keep it flying!
#dedoc° is an international community by and for people with diabetes. Our #dedoc° voices scholarship program enables diabetes advocates to attend some of the world’s most renowned scientific conferences, while our #dedoc° symposia and #docdays° have established themselves as a platform for the international voice of people living with diabetes.
Medtronic is one of the world's largest providers of healthcare solutions. In the past year, Medtronic therapies have improved the lives of more than 72 million people. That's 2 people per second. Ever since the late 1940s, we have worked with others to relieve pain, promote healing, and extend lives. For over 30 years, Medtronic has worked with the global diabetes community to help people with diabetes enjoy greater freedom and better health.
In some under-resourced countries young people living with type 1 diabetes are unable to access life-saving insulin, blood glucose testing tools and diabetes education. Life for a Child partners with diabetes centres in countries like Tanzania, Mexico and India to provide these critical supplies to young people who would otherwise have nowhere else to turn. The program currently supports over 23,000 young people in 43 countries. Together, we can achieve our vision: no child should die of diabetes.