Walks From Around America

I've been seeing lots of accounts recently of families and children fighting diabetes one step at a time like we do here at Team Shelby. Part of the beauty of the Internet is having all of this at your fingertips, but it also brings home just how many people this disease impacts.

Here are capsules of what local newspapers around the country have been reporting:
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Lowell, Mass., Sun:

Jonathan Lapa was 3 when he first got sick.

He was on vacation with his family in Disney World when he suddenly fell very ill.

At the doctor's office in Orlando, Fla., they were told he had a stomach bug, so the family cut short their trip and came back home to Dracut. But Jonathan wasn't getting any better.

They brought him to his primary-care physician. It was a good thing they did. The doctor said if they waited a couple more days, Jonathan would have ended up in a coma.

Jonathan, a sweet little boy with light brown hair and bright blue eyes, was diagnosed with Type I diabetes an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the cells that produce insulin.

Devastated by the news, the family began the long, heartbreaking journey down a road feared by all parents.

"My baby was very sick," said Jonathan's mother, Sheila Lapa, with tears streaming down her face. "And there wasn't anything I could do about it.

"I cried for a year," she said. "It's very, very hard it changes your whole life."
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From the Marietta, Ohio, Times:

By Connie Cartmell

You don't have to be a mother to know the fear Jeanann Hartman felt eight years ago when her 6-year-old daughter, Nikki Neville, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.
The news was overwhelming.

"When I first found out, I was very upset," Hartman, of Cutler, said. "I still worry, and I feel like I nag her a lot."

This mom worries that when her daughter is old enough to move away from home, that she won't take good care of herself and terrible complications will result.

In Type 1 diabetes, a person's pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone necessary to sustain life. Insulin must be taken, usually by daily injection, to maintain the proper glucose balance.

There are 17 million Americans with diabetes, 2 million diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. Of the total number of victims, there is one death every three minutes from diabetes. Juvenile, or Type 1 diabetes, often goes undiagnosed, while internal damage continues to ravage young victims. It is a growing health concern, receiving a lot of attention as more children are diagnosed at younger ages.

Several thousand Ohioans participated in a walk at Easton Mall in Columbus Sunday to support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. A group from Marietta, including Neville, attended in support.

"The numbers of people there really impressed me," Tracey Huck, of Marietta, dean of students at Cutler and Bartlett elementary schools said. "There were a ring of 'walkers' all around the mall perimeter."
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From the Munster, Ind., Times:

BY SUZANNA TUDOR

MERRILLVILLE -- More than 2,000 people took steps Sunday to help raise more than $325,000 for the Northwest Indiana Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Using names such as "Bobby's Buddies" and "Kady's Krusaders," friends and family members of youngsters stricken with the disease converged on Hidden Lake Park in Merrillville for the fifth annual Walk to Cure Diabetes.

The organization was founded in 1970 and sponsors more than 200 walks nationally. The local walk was started because of a mother's desire to help her daughter.

Kady Helmer, 14, of Western Springs, Ill., was diagnosed with Type I diabetes eight years ago.

"I felt there was a need for support from Northwest Indiana for juvenile diabetes research," said mother Kassy Helmer, 41.
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From The Intelligencer of suburban Philadelphia, Pa.:

At 8 years old, Kelly Bandish just wants to fit in.

She was diagnosed with Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes over the summer. This school year is different from the last because Kelly now has to visit the school nurse several times a day to check her blood-sugar level.

"I'm afraid people will think I'm different than the other kids. I'm afraid that they'll think I'm not the same," said Kelly, a third-grader at Mill Creek Elementary School in Warrington.

She plays soccer, softball and the violin. She loves animals. When she grows up, she wants to be a veterinarian.

Looking at her, no one would know she has diabetes. The daily insulin injections that Kelly gives herself serve as a reminder.

In Type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin, which is necessary for the body to be able to use sugar, according to the American Diabetes Association Web site.

Kelly is asking for support as she participates in the Walk to Cure Diabetes on Oct. 31 in Fort Washington. She is hoping to raise $5,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
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They go on and on and on. Thousands of kids just like our Shelby all over the country just trying to live a normal life with a disease that forces them to think about what their body is doing 24/7.