At 35 years old, Randy Lewis, a healthy, very athletic football coach, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Randy, his wife Tracy, and their three children ages 5, 3, and 1 had no clue what this diagnosis meant or how it would affect the rest of their lives.  Tracy remembers, thinking “OK, give us our prescription and we will be on our way.” The more they learned of this disease, a disease the effects 1.5 million people, a disease that cuts on average 22 years of healthy living off their lives, the more they feared.  When Randy and Tracy’s kids reached their twenties, they felt they had dodged the bullet, that they were not going to be one of the statistics as an offspring of a T1D….

They were wrong. When Sydnie, their youngest, went in for pre-op blood work before surgery on her leg, her doctor called Tracy and told her to get Sydnie to an ER right away because her glucose level was 740 (normal is 70-100), Tracy burst into tears.  She knew what this meant for her healthy, vibrant 20-year-old.   Sydnie’s life would now include multiple daily injections, finger sticks, counting carbs, the inevitable highs and lows and at times feeling totally overwhelmed.  They also knew that this disease could lead to higher risk for heart and kidney disease and depression to name a few – it didn’t seem real.

This scared the life out of Tracy, so much so that she slept in the same bed with her.  She set an alarm to wake them up at 2:00AM every night to test Sydnie’s blood sugar. The day she finally got approved for a continuous glucose monitor, well it felt like Christmas morning!

Then 10 years later it struck again.  Tracy and Randy’s son, Eric, now 34 with a brand-new baby girl was feeling so sick, so tired, losing weight he didn’t want to lose. Everyone thought it was the stress of having a newborn – again they were wrong.  Luckily his doctor knew of the family history and had his glucose level tested.  When Eric called Tracy at work with the news, she stood there in disbelief, panic on her face and tears rolling down her cheeks. All Tracy could say was “Not again!”  Eric had a family that needed him, a new baby at home. How was he going to do this?

The Lewis’ story doesn’t end there.  Randy and Tracy’s youngest granddaughter, little 3-year-old Sunniva, was screened for T1D and tested positive for her first biomarker, indicating an increased risk for developing T1D in her lifetime.  The fear the whole family faces knowing what Sunniva’s life may be like was devastating.

But the Lewis Family continues to be grateful and optimistic!

Grateful for the advances such as the introduction of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, grateful for the research, exploration and support-both financial and social-into insulin, blood sugar testing and better control of this disease.  Without these advances’ type 1 diabetes would have continued to be a death sentence to each child, each person, no matter their age of diagnosis.

And they are optimistic! Optimistic for the future!  Because of the support of people like you and organizations like Breakthrough T1D, there is now a drug therapy that has proven to delay the onset of T1D for those testing positive for the markers, like Sunniva.  With this new drug therapy, she, and others like her will be given the opportunity to extend their healthy years, to delay thousands of finger sticks and insulin injections per year.

However, their day-to-day battle with type 1 diabetes continues.  It’s a fight we will all continue to fight, so that no mother, or Mimi, has to be told that their child has type 1 diabetes.

Please consider a donation towards Fund A Cure, in honor of the Lewis Family. 100% of your Fund A Cure donations go to Breakthrough T1D and its mission to cure, prevent, and better treat type 1 diabetes and its complications.