Rosa Leguria, from Modesto, is a T1D Champion! At the age of 20 years old, she has been living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) for 16 years after being diagnosed on December 3, 2004. She is a collegiate student-athlete and Biology Pre-Med major at Dominican University, who has never let T1D get in the way of achieving her goals. Rosa is also a Global Ambassador for Team Type 1 and serves as a counselor at Bearskin Meadows Diabetes Camp.

How does Rosa live like a T1D champion?

One of Rosa’s favorite quotes is from Pat Summitt.  Coach Summitt won more games than any other NCAA Division 1 basketball coach, male or female, during her 38 years as the head coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team.

“Quit? Quit? We keep score in life because it matters. It counts. Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities because they fear failure. They don’t understand commitment. When you learn to keep fighting in the face of potential failure, it gives you a larger skill set to do what you want to do.”

Rosa always knew she wanted to be a college softball pitcher, and T1D wasn’t going to stop her.  When she was a little girl, her Dad would coach her team so he could run out to the pitcher’s mound between batters and check her blood sugar or give her a juice box.

As a collegiate student-athlete, Rosa carries Coach Summitt’s words with her.  It takes a tremendous amount of work to be both a dedicated student and a competitive athlete.  It can be a challenge to balance practice and games, classes and exams, blood sugars and carb counts, but quitting is not an option for Rosa.

When Rosa was diagnosed with T1D at the age of four, she said: “I was blessed to receive fantastic care from talented doctors, nurses, and other medical staff.  I’m especially close to two of my doctors who I admire tremendously. I’ve always known that I wanted to do exactly what they do in caring for children who face this life-altering disease. How cool would it be to have your very own doctor with T1D just like you? The road ahead is long, and I have a lot of years of school and residency ahead, but there is no quitting.”

T1D Champions are individuals with type 1 diabetes or their greatest supporters who are advocating, fundraising and donating to improve the lives of those affected by T1D. If you would like your story to be featured, please visit https://www.jdrf.org/norcal/p/t1d-champions/