From The Oakland Press

Each day, about 80 people are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the United States, with half of them being children.

This weekend, more than 7,500 people in Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor will be walking to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, including a West Bloomfield family that has raised almost $80,000 for the cause since 2004.

Janice and Steve Traison’s daughter Randi was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 4 years old. When they heard the news, they were devastated.

“She really doesn’t really remember a life without diabetes,” Janice said.

After their daughter’s diagnosis, the Traisons became involved with Breakthrough T1D (formally the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and began walking in the foundation’s annual Walk for a Cure

Breakthrough T1D Walks are held in more than 200 cities worldwide. Nearly 900,000 people nationally walked last year and raised $86 million for research toward curing, treating and preventing T1D and its complications.

“We’re always participating in things (causes) … always being proactive about it,” Janice said.

Each year, the Traisons send an e-mail to all of their friends and family, asking for donations for the cause.

When Facebook became more prominent, Janice posted asking for donations. One of her former classmates commented asking her, “Who has diabetes?” and she responded with “my daughter.” To her surprise, he also had experiences with diabetes and he wanted to help in a big way.

It turns out her former classmate now works in the Bloomfield Hills Fire Department. The department is able to donate to one cause a year, so the past three years, the donations were made toward Juvenile Diabetes. Janice said their donations have made a huge difference.

Today, Randi is 14 years old and a normal teenage girl. She recently graduated from Hillel Day School in Farmington.

“She’s great, she’s very independent with her care, most of the time,” Janice said. “She goes every year to camp on her own, she’s traveled overseas on her own. We’ve always treated it as this is not going to affect our life. Some days, not usually, I don’t even ask how her blood sugars are. She knows when she’s not feeling well. She’s never really been a kid who says ‘why me?’ She never really get angry.”

In more recent years, Randi writes the annual donation e-mail herself. She also organized her own “Kids Walk for a Cure” at school, raising over $1,000 and gets about 20 of her friends to join her for the Walk for a Cure.

“Each day, people with Type 1 diabetes must overcome the constant challenges of the disease, monitoring blood sugar levels and taking the proper dosages of insulin,” said Kate Durak, executive director for Breakthrough T1D Metro Detroit, Southeast Michigan and Northwest Ohio Chapter in a press release.

FYI

The Walk for Cure Diabetes events take place Sunday, Sept. 23 at the GM Tech Center and Hudson Mills Metropark near Ann Arbor. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and the walks begin at 9:30 a.m. in rain or shine. Walkers can register at walk.jdrf.org.