Kady Helme, Breakthrough T1D National Coordinator, Strategic Communications, will share her experience with the Artificial Pancreas Trial at TypeOneNation on March 19, 2016. Registration for TypeOneNation opens on February 16th.

Please find more information about Kady below.

Kady Helme was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was five years old.  Her family initially became involved with Breakthrough T1D by forming a family Walk team, Kady’s Krusaders, in 1997.  From 1999-2011, she was a Breakthrough T1D National Youth Ambassador and spoke to companies such as AON, Discover, and Welsh Oil to encourage them to build corporate Walk teams.  Kady has experience speaking at a variety of Breakthrough T1D events such as Walk kick offs, Galas, Person of the Year dinners, major donor events, among others. She has promoted Breakthrough T1D through appearances and interviews with local and national TV, radio, and newspaper outlets, such as the Today Show and Good Morning America.

Kady’s first trip to “storm the hill” in Washington D.C. was in 2000 when she lobbied her Illinois congressmen. In 2005, Kady returned as a member of Children’s Congress where she met with then Illinois Senator Barak Obama to discuss funding of type 1 diabetes research.

Kady has also had extensive T1D research trial experience.  In 2006, she participated in her first closed-loop trial at Yale University Hospital, which she later repeated in 2010.  She has also participated in trials testing Victoza and PET beta-cell imaging. In fall 2014, Kady participated in a Breakthrough T1D funded closed-loop “out-of-hospital” artificial pancreas trial.

Working as part of the Breakthrough T1D National Strategic Communications Department, Kady manages TypeOneNation summit events and the Young Leadership Committee groups. Kady is comfortable speaking for Breakthrough T1D events on topics such as advocacy, fundraising, diabetes management (she uses a CGM and insulin pump) and the clinical trial experience.