Three years ago, when Vienna resident Vicki Healys 15-year-old daughter Brenna was hospitalized and subsequently diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic, she was devastated.
As a nurse, I had seen the warning signs the night before and I had my suspicions, she said. But as a parent I was scared and overcome with a profound feeling of helplessness. I knew I wouldnt be able to take insulin shots for my daughter, and I didnt know what I could do to help her deal with her diagnosis.
According to the Alexandria-based American Diabetes Association, nearly 26 million children and adults in the U.S. 8.3 percent of the population have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
An additional 79 million are suspected to be in a beginning stage known as prediabetes.
According to the ADA, Type 1 diabetes formerly known as juvenile diabetes results from the body’s failure to produce insulin, the hormone that “unlocks” the cells of the body allowing glucose to enter and fuel them. It generally is diagnosed in children and young adults. The ADA estimates 5 percent to 10 percent of Americans who are diagnosed with diabetes have Type 1 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes usually results from insulin resistance, a condition in which the body fails to properly use insulin. It can be diagnosed in adults of any age. According to the ADA, Type 2 diabetes accounts for about 90 percent to 95 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes.
According to the ADAs website, the total in direct medical costs and indirect costs, such as disability and work loss of diagnosed diabetics in the U.S. in 2007 was $174 billion. Factoring in the additional costs of undiagnosed diabetes, prediabetes and gestational diabetes raises the total estimated cost to $218 billion, according to the website. The figures from 2007 are the last year for which complete statistics are available.
Shortly after her daughters diagnosis, Healy decided how she would do her part to help battle the disease.
She recruited a team and they began riding their bicycles in the National Capital Tour de Cure.
Now in its 20th year, the ADA-hosted cycling fundraiser staged annually in Reston is not a race, but rather a sponsored ride that encourages bike riders of all experience levels to participate in raising money, as well as awareness about diabetes.
Cyclists recruit donors and then ride on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail on their choice of 100-, 63-, 32-, or 12-mile circular routes. This years tour will take place Sunday.
I had been biking for about two years already with a local womens group when Brenna was diagnosed, Healy said. So it seemed logical. The tour is a way for me to contribute toward the eradication of the disease, as well as a way to deal with my own nervous energy and stress about it.
According to ADA officials, the annual tour raises more than $500,000 each year.
Last year we raised $635,000 and we hope to raise $700,000 this year, said Tour de Cure manager Brendan Foley.
Foley said similar tours are staged in 84 cities across the country. Collectively last year, they raised $19.5 million for research, information programs and advocacy efforts that support children and adults in the U.S. with diabetes and pre-diabetes.
Brenna Healy, now 18, and who is about to graduate from the Madeira School in McLean, also rides in the tour and is an ADA Youth Ambassador. She speaks to fundraising groups, educating them about the disease and relating her own experiences.
I tell them my story, she said. I tell them about how I was diagnosed at the beginning of my freshman year in high school and how at first I hid the fact that I was a diabetic. I wasnt interested in anything at all having to do with diabetes but I later realized I was OK with it and I didnt have to hide it.
Her work as a youth ambassador is appreciated by Foley.
We are very fortunate to have her as both an ambassador and a rider, he said. Many young riders look up to her.
Brenna said it is not easy being a teen and having a disease for which there is no cure, but that she deals with it as positively as she can.
It at least gave me a topic for many of my school essays, she said. I try my best to find ways to turn it into a positive experience. I havent let having diabetes get in the way of my plans for the future.
She will be attending Lehigh University in the fall and wants to major in business.
I just take everything a day at a time, she said. Most people dont have to prick their finger 15 times a day, make sure to carry candy around, or keep juice under their bed in case of emergencies. They dont have to worry in advance about how many carbohydrates will be in their wedding cake on the day they get married, or things like that. It is a very frustrating disease and there is no real formula for managing it, but I think things are getting better. Even since my diagnosis, glucose meter technology has improved remarkably and Im hopeful that with enough funding and research, a cure will eventually be discovered.
For more information about the National Capital Tour de Cure, visit www.diabetes.org/tour.
gmacdonald@fairfaxtimes.com
