TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Odessa boy, 11, going to Washington to push for diabetes cure

ADVERTISEMENT

MELISSA SZUMLIC

Published: June 22, 2009

Jacob Rivers, 11, is going to Washington, D.C., but not for the annual family vacation.

Rivers, of Odessa, is representing Florida as a delegate in the 2009 Children's Congress today.

Rivers is one of 150 children throughout the U.S. selected to represent their states on Capitol Hill this summer. His mission: to remind Congress of the critical need to find a cure for a disease that he and the other 150 kids live with daily—type 1, or juvenile, diabetes.

The child delegates, all diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, represent all 50 states. Rivers and the others will converge in Washington from June 22-24, urging lawmakers to help support the search for a cure.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the world's largest charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research, sponsors the Children's Congress. Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has raised more than $1.3 billion for diabetes research.

Rivers, who was selected through JDRF's Tampa Bay Chapter, was diagnosed with diabetes when he was four. He and his family struggle daily with his fight to stay alive.

"When people see me, they see a healthy kid because I am so active," said Rivers. "But they don't see what I have to go through every single day of my life to manage my disease. Diabetes never leaves me and I take it with me every day, every where I go. I can't wait to get to Washington to tell my story and do my part in finding a cure."

Cynthia Ford, of Grosse Point Farms, Michigan, is chair of the 2009 Children's Congress.

Her son Albert suffers from type 1 diabetes.

More than 1,500 children in the U.S. between the ages of 4 and 17 applied to participate in the 2009 Children's Congress. The kids were selected based on the need for focus in their Congressional district and in a way that divided the group evenly by ages.

"Choosing the 150 delegates from a pool of over 1,500 applicants…was a difficult process and a challenge," said Ford. "Truly, all 1,500 who applied would have served this role well."

Children's Congress has been held every other year since 1999 and has become the largest media and grassroots event held in support for finding a cure for type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 — the most serious and complicated form of the disease — accounts for around $174 billion in annual health care costs in the U.S. alone.

People diagnosed must test their blood sugar levels up to four or more times a day by pricking their fingers to draw blood, and then administering insulin through multiple, daily injections, or the use of a continuous infusion insulin pump. It's a constant fight to keep blood sugar levels in balance, or else they risk life-threatening reactions.

The long-term complications of the disease include blindness, heart attack, kidney failure, stroke, nerve damage and amputations. While usually diagnosed in childhood, thus labeled juvenile diabetes, type 1 can also be diagnosed in adults.

JDRF International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore will help lead the Children's Congress. Moore has had type 1 diabetes for almost 40 years.

"The day that you or your child is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes is a day you will never forget," said Moore. Except, today "will be a day of hope instead of a day of fear."

Follow the event on twitter at https://twitter.com/JDRFAdvocacy.

For more information on JDRF, visit their website at www.jdrf.org or call 800-533-CURE.

Read more about Jacob Rivers:

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/apr/15/student-le...

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT