Team Becca

Diabetes has affected my life and the lives of those close to me for over ten years.  Before my diagnosis, the only thing that I knew about diabetes was orange juice.  I didn't know what it really meant, but I knew that diabetics and orange juice went together.  For all I knew diabetics could only survive if they had at least three glasses a day.  Or perhaps that's the only way they could eat citrus (I'm more of an apple person myself).  It wasn't until my diagnosis day that I learned about insulin and finger pokes.  It wasn't until I took classes from my diabetes educator and in school that I learned about the blob that is a pancreas and beta cells.  It wasn't until starting my PhD that I learned how expensive it is to do research and how funding sources are sparse (a very harsh reality that I'm glad I have a few years before staring in the face, feel free to send gifts at that time).

But it was soon after my diagnosis that I learned about the great work being supported by JDRF.  And it has been these past ten years that I've felt the overwhelming love and generosity of so many of you.  And I'm asking to feel that love again.  With the artificial pancreas project, better treatment is just around the corner.  However, more funding is needed to further the research and to also support basic research to discover the underlying cause of diabetes.  Wouldn't it be dreamy to not only be able to cure diabetes but also prevent it?  Imagine a world where no other child has to hear the diagnosis and be afraid.  It would be incredible (and also dreamy).

You can also help by spreading the word about type I diabetes.  And if you don't know about the disease do your own research: go to Wikipedia; search the web; ask your friendly, neighborhood diabetic.

So please donate, educate, and generally spread the word.  Your help in all of these ways means the world to this little diabetic turned Cali girl researcher (and all the people who love her).

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love,

Becca