Twenty four cyclists from all over the US met at the JDRF Headquarters in NYC to begin a ride of over 250 miles that will culminate in Washington, DC. They will ride NON STOP until they reach their destination.
WHY are they doing this?
To make it short and sweet, they are doing this to raise awareness and ultimately find a CURE for type 1 diabetes.
Pretty cool, right?
To find out more about Hope On Two Wheels and the founders, Scott Kasper and Mike Chadwick, check out these links...
Hope on Two Wheels website
Hope on Two Wheels Facebook Page
Hope on Two Wheels in the News (great article)
For some reason, these stories always inspire me. People just like you and me who are doing incredible things for a cause they so deeply believe in - I love it!
And, if you know me, you know that one of my big goals is to do one of the JDRF Ride to Cure events. I simply don't have time for the training right now. And next year I'm focusing on a local half marathon (another lofty goal...I'd walk - and I'm at LEAST doing the 10k... but I'd LOVE to do the half). But one day...
I had these amazing folks on my mind on Saturday as we headed to a local ice cream shop for dinner and a treat. We decided to walk there. And Sweets wanted to ride her bike.
Now, she's new to the bike. She's never showed much interest in it before this year. And she's NEVER biked that far before. However, after a few warning that no one would be carrying her bike at any point, she decided that she was good to go.
And so we went!
It wasn't long before J realized that we had forgotten something. The diabetes bag.
Well, crap. Not only do we not have her life sustaining equipment - we don't have anything to give her insulin with! J quickly volunteered to go home and get it. He said he'd grab the van and meet us there ( He's no dummy!).
We were pretty sure that she would decide to ride home in the van.
Nope.
She rode to and from the restaurant with hardly a complaint. I was very proud of her!!
As we were walking, I was trying to decide if it was a BAD thing or a GOOD thing that we forgot the bag.
It's definitely a bad thing in the sense that her important medical equipment is in there and without it we can not keep her as safe and healthy as possible.
But it's kind of a good thing, too. Because it shows that diabetes does not rule our lives.
It may not come across in a blog that I write specifically about diabetes, but we really do not think about diabetes all the time. We have finally gotten to a place where it is a PART of our lives. But it's not our whole life.
When we think of going down to town to the local ice cream shop, we think about having cash. And getting her helmet on. And making sure she understands that Mommy is NOT carrying the bike!! Diabetes just isn't the first thing we think about.
And while that means that no, I didn't check her number before she got on her bike and that was probably not the best idea (However, we do really rely on Dex to alert us and we are lucky that it is so accurate for her). It also means that we see our child as a CHILD. Not just a child with DIABETES.
And sometimes, that's just what you need to do!
Here is a video I shot of Sweets biking in our neighborhood. As you can see, she needs to work on keeping her eyes on the road!
I like what she has to say! She may have mixed up where the Hope on Two Wheels folks were going - but she's got it right!
If you fall off, the important thing is get back up and keep going! You don't quit!
Love that girl!
Beautiful post! I had a thought just now, since I was diagnosed 40 years ago, and at that time was luckily put on two injections of NPH and Regular insulin while many other people were on one shot daily of Lente (or was it Ultralente - I forget!) Anyway, diabetes was a bigger part of my life at that time than it was for some of my friends and acquaintances who took one shot of long-acting insulin daily. They never had insulin reactions, of course, and I guess the long-acting insulin prevented DKA. However, most of those people I knew then are no longer with us, or are but have complications from years of elevated high blood glucose levels. So, the Upside to having diabetes be a bigger nuisance in your life is that, ultimately, you'll have more healthy years in your life. And, most certainly, we are all luckier than were those Type I's born before the discovery of insulin in 1924. This disease used to be a death sentence, and it no longer has to be.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing...I find these stories so inspiring as well!
ReplyDeleteMy husband has done fundraising rides for MS for 4 yrs. Now that our daughter has been diagnosed with TID, he really wants to do one of the JDRF rides. Hopefully next year!
ReplyDeleteLove it!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so proud of you all!!!
ReplyDelete