No introduction is needed – Take it away Mrs. Mary Horn: 

Last week we said goodbye to Camille Nash, the Chair of the JDRF Grassroots Leadership Team (GLT) since 2011. As the incoming Chair, I have taken on the challenge to fill Camille’s big shoes! I stepped up when I took on this new role and I ask that you step up with me! If you haven’t already, sign-up to be a JDRF Advocate today.

By signing up to become a JDRF Advocate, you are taking the first step in speaking out about type one diabetes (T1D). You will periodically receive Advocacy e-mails keeping you apprised of when issues related to T1D come before our elected federal officials. When you receive these e-mails, which we refer to as “calls to action,” please act! Normally we are asking you to e-mail, call, or meet with your local Representative or Senators in person.  All of these interactions are critically important to our mission to educate our legislators and to continue to support of all those people living with T1D. We make it as simple for you as possible, and in the few short minutes that it may take you to respond, you are helping our network move JDRF’s mission forward to take us from Type One to Type None.

Now, just a little about me. My daughter, Sarah, was diagnosed with T1D at 6 ½ years old. She is now 15. After Sarah’s diagnosis, I looked for a way that we could help her deal with T1D on a larger scale.  Because of its focus on research, JDRF was, and continues to be, the organization that provides our family the most hope for a cure.  We volunteered at our local Chapter and soon formed a Walk team, but I still wondered – what else could I do for JDRF?  I am not a scientist, nor do I have any medical training.  I personally won’t be finding that medical breakthrough that we so desperately want to discover.

I found that despite my lack of scientific skills, I am able to use my voice to tell our story of living with T1D and why we need to continue research.  Advocacy helps fund research and deliver that research and the advances in technology that come with it to those with T1D. That is why I quickly found my home with the JDRF Advocacy team. Each of us who personally live with, or have a loved one with T1D, know that our lives can be like walking on a tightrope – constantly balancing ourselves between high and low blood sugar levels while trying to live as “normal” a life as possible.  Although we might make it look easy, we know that it can be challenging.  We all have a story of how T1D has changed our lives. JDRF Advocacy gives us the avenue and tools to share our personal stories with our national lawmakers so that they can understand maybe just an ounce of how difficult this disease can be.

How does Advocacy bring us closer to a cure?  JDRF relies on its nationwide network of volunteers like you to help encourage Congress and other relevant federal agencies to continue their support of issues critical to fighting T1D.  JDRF Advocacy works tirelessly for the renewal of the Special Diabetes Program (SDP), a critical program that provides $150 million per year to fund critical T1D research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each interaction we have with Members of Congress brings about a better understanding of T1D, and in truth, legislators really do remember us.

In the relatively short time since my own Sarah’s diagnosis, the work of JDRF Advocacy has honestly helped improve her life.  Without past Advocacy campaigns for the inclusion of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) in insurance, she wouldn’t have the use of this technology – an item we rely on daily for her diabetes management. Advocacy works to bring research to everyone with T1D.  Research itself may find new and better ways to bring us closer to beating this disease, but Advocacy alone can bring this research to everyone who will benefit from it.

We have accomplished so much as a group, but JDRF Advocacy still has work left to be done.  We will all continue that work, until one day we turn Type One into Type None.

If I didn’t convince you before, please join us now – I am so excited to work with you!

Mary Horn
Chair, JDRF Grassroots Leadership Team (GLT)