T1D Looks Like Me

Last spring, the Naturally Sweet Sisters, along with many other amazing T1D families across the country, were asked to take part in a brand-new JDRF campaign to help bring awareness during National Diabetes Month to everyone living with Type One Diabetes.

T1D Looks Like Me

Despite growing diagnosis, it continues to be a disease that has yet to be defined as to exact cause and ultimate cure.  

We do know that T1D:

• Is an AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
• Is NOT caused by diet
• Is NOT due to lifestyle, activity or something a person did
• Is diagnosed in ALL AGES, not just children
• It REQUIRES insulin to live
• It is INVISIBLE

While I like to focus on hope and living well, the reality is that we have had situations where we have faced ignorance, prejudice and a lack of education of what this autoimmune disease is really about.

From the first day home from the hospital and a friend assumed that we were contagious due to blood borne pathogens and how our first private preschool attempt suggested that we would not be welcomed due to T1D care.  Thankfully, we were able to use those moments to weed out seriously flawed relationships and to secure a warm, loving and nurturing environment at the local public school.  

However, those are just two instances in the sea of many.  What I continue to worry about is how my children will fare in the face of such obstacles.  They carry the burden of T1D care and to add the social stigma, it could become too much.

That's why it is important to be a voice and to share the truth about T1D.  To make change, we have to create awareness. 

FROM JDRF:

National Diabetes Awareness Month begins November 1 - and you can be part of it.

T1D Looks Like Me is a simple, powerful, interactive way to highlight how type 1 diabetes (T1D) affects millions of people all round the world – including 1.25 million in the U.S.

Donate your social media status for November 1 to JDRF. 

To Join the ThunderClap Click HERE: 

-OR-

Cut/Paste into your browser:   https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/33000-nat-l-diabetes-awareness-month?locale=en

By doing so—and encouraging your friends to do the same—we can build worldwide momentum for our message. Sharing our voices as ONE is a powerful way to create a worldwide trending topic designed to raise awareness and show the world that T1D doesn’t have one look. Instead, T1D Looks Like Me.

Together, we will open hearts and minds to the complexity and seriousness of T1D, and the demands that people impacted by this disease face every day.

And feel free to tweet me @natsweetsisters with a picture or inspiration of T1D Looks Like Me  - Together, we CAN! #curet1d #teent1d