The numbers are staggering…did you know that over 1.25 million Americans have T1D, and that number is to increase to 5 million by 2050? Over 40,000 people are estimated to be diagnosed with T1D each year in the US, and T1D-associated healthcare costs in the US have hit $14 billion. Between 2001 and 2009 the prevalence of T1D has risen among US youth more than 21%.

Though considered an “invisible” disease, T1D management is everything but invisible. T1D tests people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It is unrelenting and never-ending. For many, the impact of T1D can be measured by way in which it interrupts their lives. This invisible disease doesn’t keep people from achieving great things; it just makes every step of the way harder and their accomplishments even more impressive.

Join Breakthrough T1D and our families to spread the word about the impact that T1D makes on our everyday lives, and join the conversation! T1D Looks Like Me is a simple, powerful, interactive way to highlight how type 1 diabetes affects millions of people all around the world – including 1.25 million right here in the U.S.

Visit us on our local chapter website at www.michiganeast.jdrf.org on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JDRFMichiganEast or on Twitter @JDRF_SEMich and see how you can make some noise, share your thoughts, and help support our research efforts aimed at moving us ever closer to a world without T1D!

Together, we will open hearts and minds to the complexity and seriousness of T1D, and the demands that people impacted by this disease face every day.