Mother’s Day 1997 is a day Mark & Lisa Haslam will always remember. The day their son Jackson, 7, was diagnosed with T1D. Things were quite different 24 years ago, leaving the hospital with a box full of pork insulin, syringes, lancets, a glucose meter that took a lot of blood, glucagon, a strict diet, and a stack of diabetes information. The only thing they knew for sure was that life had abruptly changed for Jax and the rest of the family. Jackson’s older brother Sam and younger sister Annie became fierce protectors of their brother, watching for signs of low blood sugar and reminders to test as they all learned together how to best manage the disease.

The Haslam’s soon discovered the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and participated in their first Walk to Cure Diabetes. It didn’t take long for the family to be all in with JDF and the goal of finding a cure. Along the way, JDF became JDRF adding that all important research component to the mission, making advocacy and fund raising even more important. Finding JDRF and other families who were dealing with the same struggles was life changing for this family then, and still is today. They know that fundraising, advocacy, and research is the only way to progress to a world without T1D.

Twenty-four years later, along with spouses and new babies they are still in the fight. As a family, they’ve walked, ran and golfed to raise money, aided with walk, gala, and outreach, delivered many Bags of Hope, participated in Children’s Congress, served as JDRF board members, local and national advocacy leaders, and lobbied Congress for funding for T1D research. They’ve witnessed firsthand how improved technologies and tools have helped keep Jackson healthy which became even more important as he took on the role as a dad to baby Rome in 2020.

Mark and Lisa Haslam live in Millcreek, Utah.  They consider themselves the luckiest parents of three great children who were smart enough to find fabulous spouses to give them four adorable grandkids.

The Haslam Family invites you to join them in celebrating how far we’ve come and where we are headed at the JDRF Hope Gala: Celebrating Progress on May 1. Text JDRF2021 to 243-725 or visit one.bidpal.net/jdrf2021.