Bloomington, MN – The face of diabetes too often comes in small packages. Nathan Buckley was diagnosed just shy of his 4th birthday.
“It’s a family disease, it’s not just Nathan,” says Jon Buckley. “But it’s caring for him and helping him… making sure his blood sugar is not too high or too low, giving him shots, checking his blood. It’s something that we all do and we all work together collectively. It’s a 24/7 disease, so it keeps us busy all the time.”
But today the Buckley family grew a thousand fold in one of the biggest fundraising walks in the Twin Cities. Kids, adults, families, and corporations all committed to funding diabetes research. For all of these families it’s personal. Every footstep through the Mall of America has a story.
For Hayley Stark, perhaps two stories. The first: her own diagnosis eight years ago. And the second? Well those crutches and her sprained ankle. But that wasn’t about to keep her away from the one event where she’s just like everyone else.
“It makes me feel normal,” says Hayley.
The money raised at the Mall of America will support diabetes research around the world, including clinical trials underway at the University of Minnesota, all with the hope of a cure.
“I’m so hopeful for a cure. Every year it seems like we make a lot of advances and I’m hopeful every year that we are getting to the cure,” says Buckley.
