Kitty Berry still remembers the day when her four-year-old daughter Anna Grace was extremely dehydrated and kept asking for water. Kitty didn’t know what was wrong and her husband, Air Force Lt. Colonel Tim Berry, was deployed to the Middle East.

Tim was thankfully able to come back to the States and they immediately took Anna Grace to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Dazed and confused by this new reality, the parents, like so many others, reached out to their extended U.S. military family who helped them through this difficult time.

No sooner were the Berry family home from the hospital, when Kitty searched the web for more information on T1D. She soon discovered Breakthrough T1D and had a “Bag of Hope” delivered to their door.  “Thanks to Breakthrough T1D, we choose hope over despair,” said Kitty.

They subsequently started a walk team, naming it “Hope for Anna Grace.” “I’m the sort of mom who goes all in. I researched Breakthrough T1D and was very impressed about the percentage of proceeds that actually go towards research. Without research, there is no cure,” said Kitty.

The team’s goal every year is to create awareness and to educate Maryland’s Calvert County community about T1D. “Anytime someone is living with a chronic disease that is invisible, it’s easy to dismiss it. But actually living with this disease and seeing the effect it’s had on my daughter physically, mentally, and emotionally, we know how serious it is. It changes everything about your life and that of your family,” said Kitty.

Anna Grace is now 15 years old and serves as an inspiration to many, hoping not only to bring awareness to others of T1D, but to help newly diagnosed children. “I think [Anna Grace] feels for others who have T1D. She doesn’t allow this disease to stop her and won’t let anyone else accept defeat either,” said Kitty. Anna Grace participated in Breakthrough T1D’s Children’s Congress in 2011. She also speaks with many different organizations to raise much needed awareness about T1D. At her high school, she created a program called “T1D Looks Like Me,” where students imitate the life of someone with T1D for a weekend.

Aiding Anna Grace in all this is her diabetic alert dog Keeper. Keeper is scent trained and can tell when Anna Grace’s blood sugar level is high or low. She also knows to fetch Anna Grace’s meter for her for testing. “Diabetes can be a lonely disease for a child. Sometimes you’re the only one in the classroom, or the nurse’s office, or on the field with T1D. But Anna Grace is never alone with Keeper. [Keeper] has given Anna Grace her freedom back,” said Kitty.

For Team Hope for Anna Grace, the Breakthrough T1D One Walk is about having a good time and bringing together families in the community to help find a cure for T1D. The team’s t-shirts are always bright pink and the Berrys receive much motivation from seeing a sea of pink come together.

As Kitty said, “We walk because for one day, our army surrounds Anna Grace and I believe that’s what propels her for the rest of the year. Because for one day they come together just to honor her and the other kids that are battling T1D.”

Team Hope for Anna Grace will be participating in this year’s Breakthrough T1D One Walk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, June 4th.

For information or to register for the One Walks hosted by the Breakthrough T1D Greater Chesapeake and Potomac Chapter, please visit the links below.

Breakthrough T1D One Walk Baltimore, Sunday, May 14th: https://bit.ly/2hpOfU4
Breakthrough T1D One Walk VA, Sunday, May 21st: https://bit.ly/2hCt41v
Breakthrough T1D One Walk DC, Sunday, June 4th: https://bit.ly/2hAUMcD