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LAVELLETTE — Denise Wirth knows how important exercise is when it comes to managing her type 2 diabetes. The 51-year-old Lavallette resident joined about 70 others Sunday at the boardwalk at Philadelphia Avenue for the Walk to Cure Diabetes.
Wirth — who works as a school counselor at the Emma Havens Young Elementary School in Brick and private-practice psychotherapist — was diagnosed six years ago with diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, she said.
“I was morbidly obese,” she said. “When I first started walking, I barely could walk about half-mile. I just kept going, walking on this boardwalk.”
Wirth has since lost 80 pounds and now competes in marathons, training on the boardwalk in her free time, she said. Since her weight loss and lifestyle change, she no longer takes medication for the hypertension or high cholesterol, and she is on a lower-dose medication to manage her diabetes, she said.
“I joke that I have 100,000 miles on this boardwalk,” Wirth said, before she walked north on the chilly, sunny morning for the Walk to Cure Diabetes.
The Lavallette fundraiser was organized by Gabriela Dvorscakova, 35, of Holmdel and Steven DeMaria, 40, of Holmdel, owners of Lavallette Personal Fitness, to raise money for diabetes research.
Diabetes refers to a group of diseases that are the result of the body’s inability to produce or use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association. Nearly 19 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to organization’s website.
Brian Bovasso, 60, of Lavallette is one of those 19 million. Bovasso and Dvorscakova, who is his fitness trainer, conjured the idea for the Lavallette Walk to Cure Diabetes weeks ago at her gym, he said.
“Everybody knows someone with diabetes,” Bovasso said, who has type 2 diabetes.
The walk raised $2,060 Sunday for the American Diabetes Association, Dvorscakova said. The association seeks to prevent and cure diabetes through research, services and outreach.
Walking is a tool to fight diabetes, and is something most people can do, Dvorscakova said.
“Exercise, walking, any type of cardio, is like alternative medicine,” Dvorscakova said.
“We’ve had several members come in, and once they’ve started working out with us and getting on a daily routine. . . they loose the diabetes,” DeMaria said. “They get off the medicine.”
