Once you get past the congestion of sheer numbers and the mix of colors, designs, and graphic techniques, there's one thing that stands out on every team shirt at the Seaside Heights, NJ JDRF Walk: cure. It's not just because the event is called the Walk to Cure Diabetes (emphasis mine), or because insulin is "not a cure" for autoimmune diabetes. It's not because parents are struggling to pay for their children's pumps and CGMs, or because adversity breeds strength.
The reason we see the word cure is same reason we see another word on team names and slogans, and that word is hope.
Haley's Hope for a Cure
Children hope to escape from the daily grind of tests, shots, insertions, counting, and logging, lows and highs, helicopter parents, and forbidden foods.
Parents hope that one day, their children will be able to eat what they want, when they want, without having to count carbs or calculate a bolus.
They hope that children with diabetes will live to become parents and grandparents, should that be their choice, and that medical conditions need not be a factor in those choices.
The third word we see is wish. As in, "I wish I didn't have to take shots (or wear a pump) every day" or, "I wish I didn't feel crappy because of this stupid high, low, or glucocoaster."
Or as in, "I wish I didn't have to worry that if I sleep through the night, I'll wake up to find my child dead in his bed."
The various "Angel Wing" teams remind us of that. Some walk for one year, some for more. While I didn't see Sui's Angel Wings this year, I'm pretty sure I've seen Team Jeneen every year I've been doing the walk. And I'm pretty sure Caiti Baby walked last year with angel wings on their shirts. Despite the loss so close to their hearts, these teams walk on, year after year, to keep the memory of their loved ones alive. And they will keep walking, and walking, and walking...
Until there's a cure.
This is an insightful article - and yes, hope is precisely why people donate money and help out at such events. Despite everything, there is still hope that one day soon we will have a cure for type 1, which will benefit the lives of millions throughout the world.
The problem, however, is if we fail to use that momentum. If we don't employ all the resources towards the research labs, and give them our full support. If we don't set goals, and ask for transparency and accountability. The major organizations like the JDRF do an important job, but people need to stand up and let them know that they can do even better - and use the donor's money in the right way.
My organization, the Juvenile Diabetes Cure Alliance, has a novel approach that will spark this needed change - but we need to continue building a united type 1 community.