Fund A Cure with The Twedell Family | Breakthrough T1D Las Vegas Gala 2027

On April 19, 2026, our lives changed forever.

Until then, type 1 diabetes was a disease we knew existed, but it wasn’t something we truly understood. We certainly never imagined it would become part of our three-year-old daughter’s life.

Layla was—and still is—a joyful, energetic little girl. She loves Disney, swimming, dancing, her friends, and being a big sister to Priscilla. But in the weeks before her diagnosis, Bree started noticing things that didn’t seem right. Layla was constantly thirsty and going to the bathroom far more than normal. On Saturday, April 18, she drank roughly ten glasses of water in about four hours.

The next day, everything happened quickly. Urgent care came to our home that morning and evaluated Layla. But Bree still felt that something wasn’t right. Trusting that instinct, she tested Layla for ketones and then asked her sister, Sarah, to help check Layla’s blood sugar. Those results led us to the hospital, where, by the end of that same day, we heard the words that would change our family forever:

“Layla has type 1 diabetes.”

We spent the next three nights in the hospital learning an entirely new way of keeping our daughter healthy and safe.

Since then, T1D has become part of virtually every hour of our lives. We count carbohydrates. We calculate insulin. We watch glucose numbers rise and fall. We wake up to alarms in the middle of the night. Lots of alarms! We make decisions about food, school, swimming, birthday parties, and bedtime that we never imagined having to make for a three-year-old.

Technology like Layla’s continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump has made managing T1D better, but it hasn’t made T1D go away. Insulin keeps our daughter alive. It isn’t a cure.

And that is ultimately why we are sharing our family’s story.

The very next day after Layla’s diagnosis, while we were still in the hospital trying to understand what our new life would look like, Mike reached out to Breakthrough T1D. At first, we were simply looking for help navigating a world we knew almost nothing about. What we found was a community—and, eventually, a way to turn some of the fear and uncertainty we were feeling into hope.

The more we learned about the research being funded and the progress being made, the more hopeful we became about what Layla’s future could look like.

We don’t know when a cure will come. But we believe deeply in doing everything we can to help move that day closer.

That’s why our family is incredibly honored to serve as the Fund A Cure Family for the 2027 Nevada Hope Gala.

When we look at Layla, we don’t define her by diabetes. We see the same funny, fearless, loving little girl we’ve always known. We want her to grow up dreaming about what she wants to become—not worrying about blood sugar, insulin, pumps, or whether diabetes will stand in her way.

And we want that for every child and every family living with T1D.

We hope you’ll join us at the 2027 Nevada Hope Gala and support our ambitious goal to raise $50,000 to help Fund A Cure. One hundred percent of Fund A Cure contributions directly support Breakthrough T1D’s mission to accelerate research toward cures for type 1 diabetes.

For us, this isn’t an abstract cause anymore.

It’s Layla.

It’s our family.

And we hope you’ll help us change what the future looks like for her.

With gratitude,
Mike & Bree

Join us at the Breakthrough T1D Hope Gala on Friday, April 9, 2027, as we take the stage to share our inspiring story and help us shine a light on the hope, progress, and possibilities ahead. Click here to join us!