Fund A Cure with The Libhart Family | Breakthrough T1D Central PA Gala 2025

From The Libhart Family

Dear Friends,

Our oldest daughter, Leah, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on August 27, 2011, when she was one month shy of her fourth birthday. Twelve years later, on December 5, 2023, our second daughter, Lauren, was diagnosed at the age of 13. Before Leah and Lauren were diagnosed, there was no history of type 1 diabetes on either side of our family. When Leah was diagnosed, we didn’t know what we didn’t know and that made learning how to live with diabetes very hard. When Lauren was diagnosed, we knew what we knew and that made her diagnosis just as hard.

After Leah’s diagnosis in 2011, we got involved in our local JDRF chapter to find community, support, and hope for a cure. Our friends and family joined Leah’s Walk Team, “Leah’s Loving Hearts,” for many years. We found comfort in raising money for research in the hopes that Leah would one day be able to say she used to have type 1 diabetes. All the fundraising we did and hard work by the scientists funded by JDRF grants paid off for Lauren. When she was diagnosed in 2023, Penn State Hershey Medical Center had all the protocols in place to administer Tzield, a 10-day treatment approved by the FDA in 2022 to delay full onset of type 1 diabetes. In January 2024, just one month after failing her oral glucose tolerance test, Lauren was Penn State Hershey’s first pediatric patient to receive Tzield.

To say life with diabetes is difficult is a massive understatement. For our family, a cure would mean FREEDOM. Freedom from being in a constant state of fear. Freedom to exercise, play a sport, and drive a car without fear of low blood sugar. Freedom to wear clothes without pockets, eat without measurement, and sleep through the night peacefully.

It is our great honor to be the Fund A Cure Family at the 2025 Breakthrough T1D Gala on May 19^th. Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) is the largest funder of the research that is getting us closer to a cure. On behalf of all people living with type 1 diabetes, we humbly ask for your financial support. Any amount, great or small, makes a difference!

Please donate directly to our Fund A Cure Family campaign by clicking the “Donate to Fund A Cure” button above.

With love and gratitude,

Stephen, Stephanie, Leah, and Lauren Libhart