I usually have my JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes fundraising letter done and distributed by mid-July. This year has been different. I've been in a fundraising funk. I'm just tired of writing the same statistics year after year. The lower life expectancy; the long-term complications; adding up the number of finger pricks since November of 2003. I finally did sit down and write our letter - deciding to simply write what I was feeling at that moment.

Dear Friends and Family,

"A cure for diabetes is just around the corner."

"Scientists are closer than ever to finding a cure."

"A cure for diabetes is now within reach."

I have written these promises in fundraising campaign letters going back to 2003, when we first participated in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. We wish, we dream and we pray for it to be true, but as Charlie approaches six years with diabetes, it becomes harder and harder to believe.

But we must.

We must believe that Charlie will not go a lifetime with this awful disease that ravages his organs and fills his days with unpredictability; a disease that punishes him for activities as mundane as eating or running fast. We must believe that one day, in the not-too-distant future, the phone will ring; television shows will be interrupted; newspapers will declare it on front pages in big, black letters – A CURE FOR DIABETES.

We just must. Anything else is unacceptable. Charlie might be partially broken, but he is not beyond repair.

Watching Charlie clip his insulin pump onto his waistband so routinely or stick out his finger to be pricked so willingly is often heartbreaking. On one hand, it’s a great relief that Charlie seems so fine with having diabetes and all that comes with it. But on the other hand, his comfort with diabetes is a sad reminder that diabetes is all he knows. That, for him, it is completely normal to count and weigh every pretzel, every slice of bread and every glass of milk before he can consume it or to be awakened at 2 am with a juice box straw jabbing at his lips. It also reflects the thousands of blood sugar checks and needle injections he’s endured in his young life.

Charlie never complains.

We can only hope that scientists truly are getting closer to finding a cure and that Charlie can see what life can be like without diabetes.

Thank you so much for supporting our efforts to find a cure.

Sincerely,

Carey and Susanne