This is what type 1 diabetes (T1D) looks like.  It is a little boy, goofing around with his younger brother and making faces for the camera.  He’s a little irritable…but then again, he’s dressed up for a family photo shoot.  He’s thirsty…but it is a little hot.  He looks a little flush…but it could be the heat.  What we didn’t know at the time was that -his blood glucose was somewhere in the high 400s because his pancreas was busted.

Just three days after this photo was taken he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  It felt like a swift kick to the gut for everyone in the family.  It was shocking, overwhelming and heartbreaking…especially when said boy looks at you as you are about to administer an injection of insulin and says, “How much longer am I going to have to do this?”  That was August 27, 2013.

Jackson Taylor Lee Colton doesn’t look like the typical third grader.  Not because he has T1D, but because he is over 5 feet tall and 115 pounds.  He is big.  He towers over most kids his age.  He’s also one of the sweetest kids you will ever meet.  He loves his family (especially his Mom, Dad, brother Aidan and dog Jagger).  He loves Star Wars, TMNT and comic books.  He plays baseball, soccer and (of course) basketball.  He acts in traveling theater at his elementary school.  He loves music and asks his Dad to play Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness whenever he gets into the car.  He also loves to play with babies and puppies…and hates to do homework. Jackson is a typical 9-year-old.  The average person, unless they caught a glimpse of a medical device or saw his parents’ giving him a finger stick, would have no idea that he has T1D.  T1D has nothing to do with breasts, doesn’t cause people to lose their hair and doesn’t cause people to be wheelchair bound.  It is silent, blends in and is deadly.

After diagnosis, Jackson—who wears his T1D on his sleeve (literally, as he wears his Omnipod on the back of his arm)—told a school nurse, “My Mommy and Daddy are going to raise a lot of money for Breakthrough T1D, so that no other kids will have to have type 1 diabetes.”

The challenge was accepted and Team Super Jack was founded.  Team Super Jack has raised more than $13,000 in three years of participating in Breakthrough T1D One Walk.

We hope that one day Breakthrough T1D doesn’t exist, as we want everyone to be able to lead their lives T1D free.

For the time being though, Breakthrough T1D continues to help fund amazing advancements.  Breakthrough T1D is currently sponsoring $530 million in scientific research in 17 countries. Among the research projects are the Artificial Pancreas, Encapsulation, Glucose-Responsive Insulin and a Vaccine to prevent T1D.
Think about these numbers…

2,940: The average number of injections of insulin that a Jackson got in ONE year.
1,460: The average number of finger sticks that Jackson got in ONE year.

We left Hasbro Children’s Hospital in August 2013 with shots and finger sticks being our new normal.  Now, Jackson has a Dexcom G4 Share to track his BG (he, Mom and Dad all rock his BG on our Pebble watches) and he wears an Omnipod to get his insulin.

If it wasn’t for the technological advancements that Breakthrough T1D has helped fund since 1970 we wouldn’t be where we are now.

We can’t wait to see where it brings us in the future.  Especially if Breakthrough T1D truly turns Type One into Type None.

For now, though…we walk.

-Brian Colton, Team Captain of Team Super Jack, Family Team Chair for Breakthrough T1D One Walk Rhode Island, and Dad to Super Jack