Victoria Martin’s decision to register her family in the five-kilometre portion of the 2011 Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes wasn’t a hard one.
It all started in January 2005, when her daughter Keely, then 2, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes following a terrible strep infection.
“I still remember that day like it was yesterday,” the Barrhaven resident said. “It’s one of those things you don’t forget easily. Any parent of a child with special needs will say the same thing. It’s one of those things that stays with you.”
Knowing the challenges her young daughter would be facing – especially the needles – because she had gestational diabetes when she was pregnant with Keely and her twin brother Asher, Martin knew she had to do something to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
She discovered the Telus Walk in 2009 and participated for the first time a year later.
“I had meant to do the walk the year before we started and then life intervened,” Martin said. “I vowed the next year that we’re going to do it and we’re going to go all out.”
That meant forming the Kruising for Keely team, with a very deep lineup of players all decked out in T-shirts.
In addition to herself, Keely and Asher, now both 8, there’s older brother Noah, 13, the children’s stepfather, David Tattersall, plus Martin’s father, Christopher, her sister Robin Vernell, and her nephew, Christopher.
Through countless events like Canada Day in Barrhaven and barbecues like there big one on June 11 – the day before the walk – Martin said she wants to create awareness first and foremost. Martin said her main objective is to show people the difference between Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes and Type 2 – a form of which is generally acquired later in life largely because of lifestyle imperfections.
But on top of that, Martin is looking to raise some cash. She said she is currently just short of the $4,000 collected last year, and is hoping to at least hit $5,000 by the time the walk starts.
By December she’s looking to double that amount.
“It’s been 50 years since insulin has been invented, we need to go out there and do something,” Martin said. “I’m sure science is close, we just need the funds to back it up.”
The Kruising for Keely barbecue will take place at MM Meat Shops, 250 Greenbank Rd. on June 11 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Proceeds will be donated to the Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes on June 12 at Queen Juliana Park.
Donations can be made through the Bank of Montreal at “Kruising for Keely,” transit number 3843, account number 8989777, or through Kruisingforkeely@gmail.com.
For more information visit www.kruisingforkeely.ca or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kruising-for-Keely/107755385946478.
