“Remember when insulin was discovered in 1921, it WAS the cure!” says Pam Sagan, Greater Bay Area Chapter Executive Board Member and VP of Government Relations. “Strange how your definition of a cure changes the longer your loved one has been diagnosed.” Pam’s daughter, Piper, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in 1989 at the age of two, long after the discovery of insulin. Even with today’s advanced treatments, Pam continues to worry about her daughter, especially now that Piper is a young adult living alone. She says, “the real cure, to me, would mean that I would only have to worry about her as much as I worry about my other children! It never stops does it? “
A retired Critical Care Nurse, Pam knows that staying active with Breakthrough T1D will help improve lives and find a cure for her daughter and the millions of other people with T1D. She is tireless: since 1992, she has served on the Minnesota and Greater Bay Area Chapter boards. She has been a member of the national Government Relations Committee since 2000 and continues through Breakthrough T1D’s fiscal year 2012. She served on the International Board of Directors for Breakthrough T1D 2001–2007 and has been an active member of the International Board of Chancellors since 2007. She has chaired many national campaigns including New Member Outreach in 2003 and Promise To Remember Me in 2002 and was the Volunteer National Manager of Grassroots Advocacy 2003–2005. She has served three years on the National Nominating and Governance Committee. In addition to currently serving as VP of Government Relations here in the Bay Area, she presently sits on the Research Committee at the National level.
Pam’s daughter keeps her motivated to work hard in all of her efforts with Breakthrough T1D. She says, “How I admire her ability to love life and endure the constancy of the struggle.”
