For the Dieck family, a type one diabetes diagnosis came out of nowhere. When Christine rapidly began losing weight at age 8 and regularly requested to refill her water bottle during class time, mom Cindy worried her daughter was suffering from anorexia.

When Cindy took Christine to the doctor for tests, they discovered Christine’s blood sugar exceeded 450 mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter, normal levels are less than 140 mg/dL), and she was immediately admitted to the local hospital.

“I started to cry as they wheeled me to the hospital room and medical staff began to explain to me that I would need shots every day and I’d have to count my carbs,” remembered Christine. “We learned a virus had attacked my pancreas, causing it to stop working. It was quite a shock.”

Said Cindy, “When we got the diagnosis, we thought, ‘We’re athletic. We eat right. How could this happen to our family?’ As parents, it felt like we were starting over, figuring out what Christine could eat and how different foods affected her.”

The adjustments to her new life didn’t begin and end just with Christine’s diet. Christine played basketball and was part of the cheerleading squad. She recalls having to sit out from her first game after leaving the hospital. But she knew she wanted to continue in sports.

“I didn’t understand at first what it meant for Christine to have T1D,” said Christine’s sister Lindsey. “It was difficult watching her interact with coaches, knowing what was going on with her, especially since Christine doesn’t want to be the center of attention.”

Christine continues to play sports, now in cross country and tennis, but is more monitored in her participation. She uses a continuous glucose monitor, and her family can watch her stats from the stands. She’s also become more in tune with her body’s cues alerting her to her blood sugar levels. The family’s active lifestyle became one of the ways they would ultimately join the fight for a world where type one has become type none.

The Dieck family heard about Breakthrough T1D while conducting research about T1D after Christine’s diagnosis and recruited 30 family members to participate in the Ann Arbor Walk to Cure Diabetes in 2008. The family soon decided it wanted to do more within their own community to help raise awareness about T1D.

Working with Breakthrough T1D, Cindy, Christine and Lindsey started their “fun-raiser” the Waterford Run and Walk for Diabetes, held at Waterford Mott High School. In its inaugural year in 2014, the event saw 200 participants, raised $7,500 in cash donations and received approximately $4,000 in in-kind donations for the gift basket auction, all generated through the hard work of Cindy, Christine, Lindsey and dedicated volunteers.

Now in it’s second year, the Waterford Run and Walk for Diabetes, which includes a color run station, will take place at Waterford Mott High School on May 30, 2015. Registration begins at 9 a.m. There are no registration fees, but donations to benefit Breakthrough T1D and diabetes research are requested.

“We want to raise awareness because it really does take a village to deal with diabetes. This fun-raiser is our way of saying, ‘when life hands you lemons, you make orange juice!’” said Cindy.

For more information about the event and how to participate, visit our event page, located here.