Fanny

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) when I was 5 years old. It immediately turned my life upside down. I had to prick my fingers and inject insulin multiple times a day. One could think that the injections were the worst part, but the management of the disease was way harder.

Living with T1D is like wondering at every moment of your life if your body will fail you, either because of low blood glucose levels (which can cause coma if not treated), high blood glucose levels or long term T1D-related complications (such as blindness, heart attack, kidney damage). This is also why I became a research scientist to help advance the cause of a T1D cure.

We need to accelerate the pace of T1D research because we are standing at a crossroads. Many promising innovations are close to becoming reality, and we need to make them available to all those who need it.

New fields of research are opening and hinting at promising potential therapies or cures that we never thought possible. Better treatments and even a cure for T1D have never been at a closer reach than they are today.

Recently, I had two safe pregnancies (without dangerous hypoglycemia) and perfectly healthy babies. Living with T1D is still a challenge I have had to live with every moment of every day for the past 30 years. That is why I am so committed to work with JDRF to cure diabetes.