On June 8, 2025, our type 1 diabetes (T1D) community will come together in Rochester, NY at Breakthrough T1D Walk, Seabreeze. Jesserer Strong is one of the many teams that will be in attendance to celebrate our collective impact through fundraising, community support, and spreading awareness of T1D. We are honored to introduce you to two members of Jesserer Strong: Jane and Louise. They share a special bond as the only two members of their large family to live with T1D, and they shared their stories with us.
Life-changing diagnoses, decades apart
1955: Food plan Louise and her parents received from the hospital to guide her diabetes care.
On Halloween in 1955, Louise was diagnosed with T1D. Only 8-years-old at the time, she shared, “I did not fully understand the significantly profound impact the word [diabetes] would have upon my life. … At the time, I thought I must have done something terribly wrong, and I was being punished.” The state of diabetes care was drastically different than it is now in 2025, and Louise recalls being told in the hospital that she would likely not live very long with T1D. Her new weekly routine became a series of injections with glass syringes and needles, restricting her diet to only eat certain foods, and urine tests. She recalls feeling “very isolated, alone, and different” as she adjusted to her new way of life.
Jane at age 3, in the hospital after receiving her T1D diagnosis.
Many years later, in 2021, Jane was 3-years-old when she was diagnosed with T1D. Her mother, Brittany, noticed Jane had started to wet the bed and took her to the pediatrician, who knew to check her blood sugar. Brittany remembers that “[Jane’s blood sugar] was so high, it could not be read on the meter.” They were told that Jane had diabetes and they rushed to the children’s hospital, their lives changed in an instant. Brittany and her husband found the first weeks and months post-diagnosis to be “overwhelming and terrifying. We were uncertain how we would navigate this new life, and it was even harder watching our 3-year-old struggle with shots, not fully comprehending what was happening to her.
Finding strength in each other
Jane helps Louise with a Dexcom site change.
Although Louise’s prognosis was grim in 1955, diabetes care and management continued to improve, and she kept living a full and successful life with her diabetes. Brittany shared that Louise has been “right there with [them] the whole time” since Jane’s diagnosis: “We have been so lucky to have Aunt Louise to call on over late nights and early mornings. She has a calm, knowledgeable, loving presence, and also a wonderful sense of humor about diabetes. She keeps us grounded for sure.”
Finding hope in community
2021: Jesserer Strong participating in their first JDRF One Walk (now Breakthrough T1D Walk)
Louise felt very isolated and alone in her T1D diagnosis until she attended Camp Ho Mita Koda in Ohio: “There were no support groups available, and my parents’ only resource was my pediatric endocrinologist. … My sense of isolation began to turn around and Camp Ho Mita Koda in Ohio was the key!
I assumed more responsibility for myself while watching others and how they took care of themselves not feeling embarrassed, ashamed, guilt, or hiding! Additionally, my parents had a very well-deserved break. The first time I arrived at Camp, my five siblings and parents were teary-eyed as they left, however, upon their return, I was the one who was teary-eyed leaving!”
Brittany described participating in their first Walk just one month after Jane’s diagnosis! “Our local Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) chapter was so helpful. We felt alone and scared, and they provided comfort and resources.” Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no in-person Walk that year, “so with the encouragement of Breakthrough T1D, our family and friends met at a local park and walked on our own. The head of our local chapter in Buffalo graciously gave us t-shirts and wrist bands that she had left over from previous events.
I will never forget that day she met us in the pouring rain, strangers she had never met. She handed me a large box of things we could use for our Walk, gave me a big hug, and told me everything was going to be okay. It was right then and there I saw firsthand the compassion and camaraderie of the diabetes community.”
Ever since that first Walk in 2021, their team, Jesserer Strong, has returned year after year, and they are excited to join us again at Seabreeze Amusement Park on June 8, 2025!
Living life to the fullest with T1D
Type 1 diabetes changed Louise’s and Jane’s lives, but it did not stop them.
For Louise, “diabetes has been both an incentive and an inhibitor for [her].” She often felt different and othered from children her age, but having diabetes challenged her to prove that she could accomplish anything that someone without diabetes could. “Acceptance [of this disease] did not come easily, but at age 18, I was finally able to say the word diabetes without a massive lump developing in my throat.
Throughout life, I achieved my goals I did not believe possible such as obtaining my driver’s license, attending business school, undergraduate school, living alone, bicycling four ‘century’ rides of 100 miles each, participating in diabetes research, writing song called ‘Ode to Diabetes’ and getting married!” October 31, 2025 will mark Louise’s 70th year living with type 1 diabetes.
As Jane’s caregiver, Brittany shared, “To someone newly diagnosed, I would say that this disease is ever changing; it does not necessarily get easier, but you become more adaptable and confident. I have never had to tell my daughter there is something she cannot do because of diabetes. She plays baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, swims, dances, and is just starting to cheerlead. Some days take more planning, more insulin, and more juice boxes than others, but it never stops her.
2023: Louise and Jane walk together at Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) Walk.
‘I would also say there is a huge community of not only those with T1D, but their family and friends that know the daily struggles, and are here waiting to support and love. This road may not be easy some days, but there are many people walking it with you.”
Join us at this year’s Breakthrough T1D Walk, Seabreeze on June 8, 2025: https://walk.breakthrought1d.org/Seabreeze
