My Son's Dream

My son is giving his “I Have a Dream” speech today at school. Here is his.

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I Have a Dream

I have a dream that one day, there will be a cure for diabetes. Now, I know that people may not know the whole deal about diabetes, and that people say that diabetes is not as serious as other diseases. I’m here to tell you that it is a serious disease. Now, I’m not saying that other diseases aren’t as important or as serious. Other diseases can sometimes be treated to such an extent, resembling a cure. With diabetes you live with it for the rest of your life.

There are two different types of diabetes. Type one diabetes develops when the body’s immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make the hormone insulin that regulates blood glucose or sugar. Type two diabetes accounts for about 90 to 95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. It is where the cells do not use the insulin properly.

Also, with diabetes, comes responsibility. You have to take daily glucose tests, testing your blood sugar, to see if you need to eat something if it’s to low or to put in more insulin when your blood sugar is to high. Also, the next bad thing that comes with diabetes is the complications. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure. Diabetes has also become the leading cause of new blindness. Another big part of these horrible problems is amputation. More than 60% of non-traumatic lower-limb amputations occur in people with diabetes.

These are just some complications out of the never-ending list. Diabetes can cause Heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, Kidney disease, Nervous System Damage, amputations, Dental disease, Pregnancy complications, Sexual Dysfunction, and more. Just think about it, one cure for diabetes will stop all of these. The problem is we don’t have a cure right now. So diabetics must do things to survive. Type one diabetics must take insulin by injection or pump. Type two diabetics can follow a healthy meal plan and an exercise program to avoid taking pills or possibly injections as well.

Now you can see how serious diabetes is. I still can’t believe that that’s not all of the complications of diabetes. One of the biggest reasons people don’t think it is as serious is because they don’t know a lot of people with it. Every 21 seconds someone is diagnosed with diabetes. My dad has diabetes. He was diagnosed when he was 17 years old. He was diagnosed with type one diabetes. I’ve asked him countless times that if someone found a cure would you go get it. He always has the same answer. Yes, I would go and get it as soon as I could.

He is the reason I wrote a speech about diabetes. He is very involved with diabetes programs. He writes a blog about a lot of things, but mainly about diabetes. He was nominated for best type one blog and best diabetic blog. He is also involved in diabetes walks for different foundations, such as the ADA or the American Diabetes Association, and the JDRF, or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Our walk team was called team “Beat the Bete.” We were handed these sashes with the ADA symbol on them and the message that said how frequently someone is diagnosed with diabetes. There was something unique about the way they passed out these sashes. They passed them out every 21 seconds. When you looked around, in no time, almost everyone had a sash. This goes to show what an epidemic this really is.

Diabetes has had a profound impact on my life. I will continue to fight with my family and friends, raising money as well as awareness every time I participate in a fundraising event. I hope I have affected your life by increasing your knowledge on the subject of diabetes.

This is my dream.

I hope and pray for it to come true in my dad’s lifetime…

or at least mine.

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He wore his "Beat the Bete" shirt today. I am so proud of him and at the same time, sad that he has to know this disease.