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Contact: Joana Casas
Manager, Media Relations
Office: (212) 479-7560
Mobile: (917) 574-6122
Email: mcasas@jdrf.org
NEW YORK, January 24, 2007 - Some 150 children and teenagers throughout the U.S., and several from around the world have been selected to travel to Washington, D.C. this summer to represent their state and country and remind Congress and the Administration of the critical need to find a cure for a disease they live with every day - type 1 (or juvenile) diabetes.
These children - ages 4 to 17, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and all diagnosed with type 1 diabetes - will converge on Washington, D.C., to tell their stories and urge lawmakers to help find a cure during the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Children's Congress 2007, from June 17 to 20. Joining these children in Washington, D.C. will be six International Delegates from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Israel, Greece and the United Kingdom, who will partner with US delegates to convey a clear message to the US government that diabetes is a global problem that requires a global effort.
The event, held every other summer, will be led by JDRF's International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore, and will include Congressional visits by the child delegates and a Congressional hearing where Ms. Moore, select delegates, researchers, and business and community leaders will testify on the need for continued funding for research on diabetes and its complications. Ms. Moore and the child delegates, under the theme of "Promise to Remember Me," will ask Members of Congress to support an increase in federal funding for diabetes research.
The Senate Co-Chairs of Children's Congress are Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR); and the House Co-Chairs are Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE) and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA).
"Anyone who has been there will tell you that the day you or your child is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes is a day you will never forget." said Ms. Moore, who has had type 1 diabetes for more than 35 years. "Members of Congress now have the chance to give these children and their parents another day they will never forget. Instead, this time will be a day of hope instead of a day of fear."
Ms. Pam Edmonds, of Charlottesville, Virginia, is Chair of Children's Congress 2007. Ms. Edmonds, her husband Frank and daughter Holland, who was a delegate in 2005 and has type 1 diabetes, serve as the designated Chair Family.
"Having the privilege of being a part of Children's Congress 2005, our entire family understand what a vital role this event plays in furthering our mission to cure diabetes," said Ms. Edmonds. "We are honored and excited to be leading an extraordinary group of delegates who will ask Washington's leaders to 'Promise to Remember' all of us who long for a cure for diabetes and its complications."
Children's Congress, held every other year since 1999, has become the largest media and grassroots advocacy event held in support of finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, the newly-selected delegates will follow in the footsteps of their predecessors in raising national awareness about type 1 diabetes and participating in personal advocacy at the highest level of United States government.
In type 1 diabetes - the most serious and complicated form of the disease that accounts for at least $132 billion in annual health care costs in the U.S. alone - a person's pancreas stops producing insulin, the hormone that enables people to get energy from food. To survive, people with type 1 diabetes must test their blood sugar levels up to four or more times a day by pricking their fingers to draw blood, and then administering insulin through multiple, daily injections, or the use of a continuous infusion insulin pump.
While trying to balance insulin with the amount of food eaten (which raises blood sugar) and exercise (which lowers blood sugar), people with type 1 diabetes must constantly be prepared for potential life-threatening low or high blood sugar levels. Just as devastating, the long-term complications of diabetes include blindness, heart attack, kidney failure, stroke, nerve damage and amputations. While usually diagnosed in childhood, type 1 diabetes can also be diagnosed in adults.
About JDRF
JDRF is a leader in setting the agenda for diabetes research worldwide, and is the largest charitable funder and advocate of type 1 research. The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. Type 1 diabetes is a disease which strikes children and adults suddenly and requires multiple injections of insulin daily or a continuous infusion of insulin through a pump. Insulin, however, is not a cure for diabetes, nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating complications which may include kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke, and amputation.
Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than $1.3 billion to diabetes research, including more than $156 million in FY2008. In FY2008 the Foundation funded more than 1,000 centers, grants and fellowships in 22 countries.
