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Sarah McDonald

Team Sarah McDonald

My name is Sarah McDonald and I am 13 years old. It is incredible to believe that almost five years have passed since I was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I cannot even recall what life was like before this happened. Testing my blood 8 or more times a day, changing my insulin pump sites, and of course calculating those pesky carbohydrates are part of my life and are “normal” for me now.

I have been using an insulin pump for almost four years now. Although it has given me more freedom in activity and eating while still maintaining good blood sugar control,so many other factors, which I have no control over, can negatively affect my blood sugar levels including: stress, hormonal changes, growth, physical activity, medications, illness/infection, and fatigue.

In fact, this past winter I had surgery for a ruptured appendix. Just when I thought I was recovering well, it was discovered that I had a serious infection in the abdomen from the poison of the ruptured appendix. I lost 20 pounds. Managing my insulin and nutritional requirements became the utmost goal and biggest challenge. I know that since I had looked after myself prior to my illness, my health would return. It was a long winter, but today I am better. I have been back in the pool training for the last couple of weeks and it feels good.

Diabetes is a chronic, debilitating disease affecting every organ system. Type 1 diabetes is the most severe and unpreventable form of diabetes and is caused by an autoimmune destruction of the insulin producing cells in the pancreas. People with Type 1 diabetes, like me, must take insulin by injection (or insulin pump) to live! Insulin is not the cure. Every day is a battle with a disease you can treat, but never control. Sometimes you win and vigilance has paid off. Other times you don’t…despite all that hard work. There are no guarantees.

A cure needs to be found not only for me but also for the 240,000 Canadians that are living with this disease, and for the many more worldwide. It’s hard to imagine my life without diabetes today, but it would be so awesome not to worry about any possible long-term complications like kidney failure, blindness, heart attack and stroke.

That’s why I walk for the JDRF Walk to a Cure. JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) gives more money to diabetes research than any other not-for-profit, non-governmental agency in Canada and throughout the world. Our first team Walk to a Cure was in June 2005. Did you know that since our first walk you have helped me raise over $25,000 to help fund that research? Thank you.

With the warmer weather approaching, I look forward to this year’s Walk to a Cure coming up on Sunday, June 14th. Please help me work towards finding a cure...

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