WELLAND –
Niagara is walking toward a future in which children don’t have to prick their fingers 2,190 times a year.
The annual Niagara Region Walk to Cure Diabetes takes place this Sunday on Merritt Island. Registration starts at noon. The walk starts at 1 p.m.
“We want to show young families with children who have recently been diagnosed (with diabetes) that they are not alone, there is support out there,” says walk volunteer, participant and past organizer Mark Turner.
“Diabetes doesn’t take a day off. It doesn’t take a vacation. You have to monitor it constantly throughout the day. You have to be on top of it at all times.”
Over the past seven years walkers in Welland have raised $210,000 toward research.
Two years ago walks across the region joined forces to create one regional fundraiser. Last year $38,000 was raised.
Turner says the hope Sunday is to raise $45,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Turner and his family started raising money when his son, Blake, now five, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 18 months old. Turner encourages people who have newly diagnosed family members to join and walk Sunday.
The fundraiser features live entertainment, face painting, bouncy castles and a barbecue lunch for all participants. Turner is looking for food donations.
To donate or pick up a pledge form, call 905-0714-7690.
The facts
More than three million Canadians have some form of diabetes
More than 300,000 Canadian children and adults live with type 1 diabetes
The number of people living with type 1 diabetes is increasing by 3% to 5% annually; the greatest rise is in children five to nine years of age
A child living with type 1 diabetes requires about 1,463 needles a year (based on four per day) and 2,190 finger pokes a year to test blood sugar
Canada has the sixth highest incidence rate of type 1 diabetes in children 14 years of age or younger in the world.
— Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
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