JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

For the past ten years, whenever an Australian child is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes they are given a KIDSAC pack. This pack helps to teach the child and their family about living with type 1 diabetes and includes their own Rufus or Ruby, the Bears with type 1 diabetes.

Rufus the bear with type 1 diabetes (T1D) was created in 1996 by American Carol Cramer to help support her three-year-old son who had been newly diagnosed with T1D. She also wrote a story book about a boy with type 1 diabetes, with the moral that every child will be happy and healthy with the right support and education.

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Barnaby Howarth is a former AFL footballer with type 1 diabetes who survived a stroke following a gang attack in 2005. Despite this, he remains positive and knows that getting knocked down is no excuse to stop trying. He shares his story with us.

When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 14, I didn’t know what it meant. I was a keen Aussie Rules footballer but I didn’t know if diabetes meant I’d have to wrap myself in cotton wool. I didn’t like the sound of taking it easy, so I just closed my eyes and jumped back into my pre-diabetes life and saw how far I could take it.

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JDRF is giving you the chance to voice what you think about how type 1 diabetes is portrayed in the media!

Take five minutes out of your day to fill out this quick survey about your thoughts of how accurately the media (broadcast, print, and social) represents type 1 diabetes.

Your feedback can help the type 1 diabetes community influence the way in which type 1 diabetes is reported, and help media outlets ‘get it right’.

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Marg (right) with husband Kerry and daughter Sarah in Europe – a trip made possible after islet cell transplantation

Marg Harrigan was the first person to receive islet cell transplantation at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, under the JDRF Islet Transplantation Program. We shared her story in 2010, now Marg returns to let us know about her life in the past two years.

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Earlier this year, eight-year-old Hayden set sail on the Carnival Spirit with his family and his best friend Rufus, the teddy bear with type 1 diabetes, to celebrate his grandmother’s 60^th birthday. The cruise left from Sydney and sailed to Noumea, then Mystery Island, Fiji and Isle of Pines.

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I’m relieved that the day is finally here. Our little boy Marley is now a schoolboy, all dressed up in his new uniform, hat and backpack and ready to join his class.  He’s ready for this next stage of learning, though I’m like all the other parents standing aghast with ‘where did those five years go?’ look on their faces.

He’s a little clingy but that’s to be expected on the very first day of school. He’s wearing his medical alert type 1 diabetes wristband, but I’m fairly confident he’ll take it off within 10 minutes. We reassure Marley that he’ll be fine, we give him a final hug and kiss and he’s away…off to be educated!

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Since their daughter Riley’s diagnosis two years ago at the age of five, Ben and Sam Poprawski have promised her that they will do everything they can to help raise money for a cure for type 1 diabetes.

Ben says about Riley: “She, like all three kids we are blessed with, is an angel. She’s caring, loving, beautiful and loves life! It’s not fair that she has to deal with this disease.  I admire the way Riley deals with the finger pricks and the set changes. Some days she gets cranky. Some days she gets angry. Most days she just gets on with it. Some days she cries. We hate the crying, but she has to deal with it until there is a cure”.

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A major new endurance running event, the Big Red Run, will be in held in July to raise funds for JDRF and type 1 diabetes research. Based out of Birdsville from 8-13 July, the event will give runners and walkers the chance to tackle the iconic red sands of the Simpson Desert.

The Big Red Run has the support of some of the biggest names in Australian running and entertainment, with ultra-marathon champion Pat Farmer serving as event ambassador and country music legend John Williamson set to perform a free concert on 8 July.

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Accredited Practising Dietitian Sally Marchini is running a free web seminar on “Living with diabetes and coeliac disease”.  Hosted by the Type 1 Diabetes Network, the one-hour webinar will be held at 7.55pm EDT on Monday 4th February 2013.

Sally says “Living with diabetes and coeliac disease is based on my own life experience with type 1 diabetes (diagnosed age 12) and coeliac disease, combined with my work and continuing study as an Accredited Practising Dietitian. I aim to empower people to make the most of life and to learn what new foods they can enjoy, rather than feeling that they’ll be missing out”.

The webinar will look at the prevalence and different diagnosis methods of coeliac disease, and explore specific areas that affect type 1 diabetes differently to those with coeliac disease alone. The webinar will also look at the reasons some people can fail to improve on a gluten-free diet, the Coeliac Australia guidelines, and the many potential areas of gluten contamination in everyday life. Many of these issues are complex in nature, especially when considering glycaemic control, and so it is important that people seek specialist medical advice.

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Kristy shares her story about her son’s diagnosis of type 1 diabetes two months short of his 15th birthday in September 2011, and how they decided to help find a cure.

What’s happening to our son?

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