What I’ve Learned From Juvenile or Type 1 Diabetes

As National Diabetes Awareness Month concludes, I am grateful for the work that the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) has done on behalf of families and children like mine who live with Type 1 diabetes. JDRF is the only global diabetes foundation with a strategic plan to end Type 1 diabetes. As a father of two boys with Type 1 diabetes, that’s important to me. My wife and I long for the day that our sons and others like them no longer have to prick their fingers multiple times each day to check their blood sugars and endure insulin pump site changes and injections. I feel privileged to have been able to work with JDRF for the past 10 years, including the last two years as president of the Board for the Georgia chapter. It’s one of the most meaningful ways that I fight to change the world for my boys. Recently, I was interviewed along with Trey Moore, executive director of the Georgia JDRF chapter. You can see that article here.

Raising two children with a chronic illness has helped me empathize with what many of our clients go through when faced with the long-lasting repercussions of a devastating injury. I know first-hand how these traumatic circumstances can impact the entire family. My partners and I can’t change what’s happened to our clients, but we can and do assure them that we will always treat them with compassion and fight aggressively to achieve the best possible result for them.

What’s worth fighting for in your life?

-Andy Cash