Brooke Brady, Sheryl Brady Teske, Jim Teske and Brittany Brady
Jim and Sheryl Teske of Louisiana have been involved with Breakthrough T1D in countless ways since Sheryl’s daughter, Brittany, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in 2001. She was 10 years old. “Brittany was a competitive dancer and I remember her being so thirsty before and after rehearsals,” Sheryl recalls. “She got so sick that she started to vomit, so I pulled out medical journals and called our doctor to ask them to check for diabetes. Her blood-glucose was a 455 when we finally got her into the doctor’s office and she was transferred to the ICU for five days.”
Despite this scary time, Brittany was supported and encouraged to learn how to manage her T1D quickly so that she could still go on to her dance competition. “Brittany is now 28 and all along we have tried to instill in her that she can do anything she wants to do. We want her to truly believe she has no limits due to her T1D.”
Sheryl’s time with Breakthrough T1D has included 10 years of board service and various roles with Gala, including Gala Chair. For Jim, it’s all a bit newer. “I married into T1D eight years ago,” he says. “I have tried to learn as much as I can since then and joined the board several years ago. I’ve been to many Galas now and I love being involved in making each year’s event as successful as possible.”
The Teskes realized there was more they could do to advocate for Brittany and ensure vital T1D research continues to have the funding it needs to unlock new advances in the treatment, prevention, and ultimately cure of the disease.
The love Jim and Sheryl have for Brittany helped them kick-start an important conversation about their future charitable giving. “Previously, we had never really focused as much as we should on our will and estate planning,” says Jim. “As we’ve started to have conversations about it, we realized that we were creating a will to protect our family. A big part of protecting Brittany is ensuring Breakthrough T1D has the resources it needs now – and in the future – to make her life safer and healthier until there is a cure.”
Jim and Sheryl decided to establish a gift to Breakthrough T1D in their estate plans to provide the security of knowing funding will be available to drive critical research forward in the future.
“Our real hope is that this gift is never required,” says Jim. “We feel confident that a cure will be found while we are around to see it, but in the event that it’s not, we feel good knowing that we are going to continue to help Brittany even when we’re not around.”
Learn more about ways to give to Breakthrough T1D.
