My name is Victoria Denen and I am now 9 years old. I am in 3rd grade in our home school. I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 14 months old. I will tell you what it’s like to have diabetes: The first thing I do in the morning when I wake up is do my blood sugar. I have to check my blood sugar before any meals and snacks, and also many times about one hour after I finish eating to make sure the insulin amount I received is right to keep my blood sugars from going too low or too high. Once my blood sugar went so low that I had a seizure. It was very scary, especially for my mommy. My mom or dad check my blood sugar throughout the night also. I get my blood sugar checked about 11 times per day. That’s about 330 times per month, or about 3,960 times per year. That means that I have had my blood sugar checked about 31,680 times so far.

Having diabetes is no fun. Sometimes I cry because I wish I didn’t have it. When I was younger, I had to have a lot of shots to get my insulin. But when I was 4 years old, I received an insulin pump. It is better than having 4 shots per day. But it is still not a cure—only life support until a cure is found. My catheter is changed every 2-3 days. Even with the numbing cream on, it still sometimes hurts when my mommy changes it.

While we were on vacation this year, my pump got ruined. It was supposed to be waterproof, but when I went swimming with it, water got inside and it stopped working. Thankfully, we were able to get a new pump sent to us within 24 hours. During those hours of waiting for my new pump to arrive, my blood sugar had to be checked even more often and I also needed a shot every 2 hours to keep my blood sugars under control. That was about 12 shots in one day! I was so glad when my new pump arrived!

There are more than 3 million Americans with type I diabetes (which is what I have), and about 1.3 million people are diagnosed with diabetes in the U.S. each year. About 18.2 million Americans have diabetes. Even with my pump, Mom and Dad say I can still develop something called complications which means kidney disease and dialysis, heart disease, stroke, blindness, & amputation because of nerve damage. I don’t want to experience any of those things. More than anything, my wish is to live a day without diabetes again.

JDRF Statistics

JDRF was founded in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes. As a result, JDRF volunteers have a personal connection to type 1 diabetes. These volunteers are the driving force behind more than 100 locations worldwide that raise money for type 1 diabetes research. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is the leading charitable funder and advocate of type 1 diabetes research worldwide. The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. More than 80 percent of JDRF's expenditures directly support research and research related education.

JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 research to date. Since it was founded, JDRF has awarded more than $900 million to diabetes research. JDRF has taken the lead in translating basic research breakthroughs into cure therapies. Some of these areas include experimentation in islet cell transplantation (these are the cells that make insulin which are destroyed by Victoria’s own immune system), transplantation tolerance, islet cell regeneration (which would allow people with type 1 diabetes to become insulin independent) and diabetes prevention. JDRF has been making amazing breakthroughs in the cure and prevention of diabetes. Thank you for helping to make this happen.

2006 Walk to Cure Diabetes

I hope you all can join me for the 2006 Walk to Cure Diabetes. This year’s walk will be held on September 30, 2006 at Island Metro Park/Children’s Discovery Garden in Dayton, OH. Registration and breakfast will start at 9:00. The 5K walk will start promptly at 10:00. Upon arriving back, we will have lunch. All meals and snacks will be provided.

Join Us To Raise Money for A Cure

You can help me by sending money to assist the research in finding a cure for me and others like me. If you would like to donate online and/or walk with us, you can register and/or donate on-line at www.jdrf.org. Click on “Register ” under Get Involved...Walk Central. Type in Victoria Denen-Ohio for “Support a Walker”. Then click on her name and it will give you a choice to donate to Victoria’s team (Victoria’s Victors) and/or join her team! Every walker that raises $100 will get a T-Shirt.