Fund A Cure with Karen Dugan | Breakthrough T1D Rochester Gala 2026

Our Story…

Fifteen years ago, in March 2011, my 11-year-old son, Kevin, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D). Fifteen years ago, he joined my sister, Janice, and my father, John, in living with this lifelong autoimmune disease.

As many of you know, this road is not easy. Every day begins and ends with blood sugar management. Every meal. Every workout—some can raise blood sugar because of adrenaline, while others can cause it to drop almost immediately. Every illness. Every stressful moment at work or in life. In our bodies the pancreas is constantly responding to food, hormones, activity, illness, and stress, and adjusts insulin production accordingly. But for Kevin, he is the pancreas.

Carbohydrates must be counted. Insulin doses calculated. Pumps refilled with lifesaving insulin. Blood sugar levels monitored constantly. It is a never-ending challenge of up and down, every day, every week, every year.

People often say there are no days off from T1D. I would argue there are few hours off from T1D.

Even with extraordinary vigilance, the long-term risks remain real: vision loss, heart disease, stroke, nerve damage, loss of limbs, and life-threatening episodes of dangerously low blood sugar. People with T1D don’t just lose the ability to produce insulin—they can also lose the ability to produce glucagon, another critical hormone that helps protect against dangerously low blood sugar.

For Kevin, this has meant 15 years of needles, sensors, alarms, and insulin pumps attached to his body. Fifteen years of carrying a chronic disease that cannot safely be ignored for more than a few hours and for which there is still no cure.

For Janice, it has now been 54 years.

I know it wears them down, although neither of them really complains.

While they spend far too much of their lives managing this disease, I am fighting for them by investing some of my life – my time and energy in an organization called Breakthrough T1D (BT1D), whose mission is to cure, prevent, and better treat T1D.

The scale of the research happening today was unimaginable 15 years ago.

Scientists have successfully developed stem cell-derived pancreatic cells that produce insulin inside the body—and these cells are working. Researchers have developed new immunosuppressive approaches that could make these kinds of cell replacement therapies safer and more accessible. Treatments have been developed to preserve insulin-producing cells after a T1D diagnosis. And FDA-approved therapies can now delay the onset of T1D in people who are at high risk.

I can’t help but imagine how grateful I would have been if Kevin had been offered such an option at the time of his diagnosis—if we could have given him even a few more years to grow up without this disease.

Progress is real. The momentum is real. The hope is real.

Fifteen years after Kevin’s diagnosis, I am more determined than ever to help change what the next 15 years look like—not only for him, but for the many others I love who are living with T1D around the world.

Please join us in supporting Fund A Cure with a 100% tax-deductible gift. Your contribution will directly fuel research and breakthroughs that are bringing us closer to a world without Type 1 diabetes.

Together, we can help turn hope into a cure.

With gratitude, The Dugan Family