Guest Post: No Child Should Die of Diabetes.
Veerle Vanhuyse is off and running … literally. Verlee lives with type 1 diabetes and is running the NYC Marathon in a few weeks, aiming to raise awareness and funds for the IDF’s Life for a Child program. Today, I’m proud to be hosting a post from Veerle about her marathon goals!
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A quarter of a century it’s been already but it still feels like yesterday. About to turn 16 and counting the days to leave for France with a bunch of teenagers to learn the language. I hadn’t been feeling well over the last few weeks and my trip to France became a trip to the hospital. Diabetes! I took my very first shot of insulin on my birthday. Sweet sixteen indeed!
In the beginning, I did really bad, didn’t take care of it at all. Only in my late twenties(!), I took diabetes more seriously and got my a1C’s from 9+ to 5%.
Eighteen years and a child later, I started running. And in eight years time I went from 100 meter and being exhausted (I’m not kidding), to 5K, 10K, half a marathon and finally the full monster; Berlin Marathon 2012.
That sad girl back in 1987 would’ve never guessed she would be doing what I’m about to do in one month: Being at the start of the mother of all marathons, New York City 2014!
Needless to say, I am very excited about this upcoming event. But make no mistake, there’s no such thing as knowing exactly how to anticipate with the sugars before a long run, or any run for that matter. Every workout is different, depending on so many factors all diabetics deal with every single day.
Three weeks before the Berlin marathon, I suddenly realized I should grab the opportunity to raise money for diabetes. And I did. 1.700 euro went to research at the University Hospital in Leuven, Belgium. But this time I wanted to do something more specific. It didn’t take me long to find a new great goal. Surfing the web for a few hours I found a wonderful initiative called ‘Life for a Child’ supported by the International Diabetes Federation. I read about Dr. Marguerite De Clerck, a Belgian nun who spent the past 55 years treating children with diabetes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It instantly hit me! THIS was a project I immediately believed in and I wanted to make a difference for. In the end my goal is comparable to the wonderful Spare a Rose, Save a Child campaign: Provide children and youth in developing countries the basic care they need to stay alive with diabetes.
So far, I raised 2.500 euro, and I’m working really hard to at least double this amount. I’m hoping to help families in Kinshasa keeping their loved ones alive.
It is a clear message: No child should die of diabetes.
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I asked Veerle to provide a bio, and the one she sent to me in first person language was too laced with passion to edit in any way.
Here’s Veerle, according to Verlee: “There’s the Belgian, so called ‘outgoing’ 43 year old, who talks a lot and who’s always in for a joke. And there is the T1 diabetic since 27 years, who can be really sad about the battle she has to fight against the disease every single day. “She deals with it really well,” people – even close to me – would say. They have no idea. One way to “deal with it” is running ! A lot! And in less than 4 weeks, I’ll be living my dream: NYC marathon ! Last race, because there’s also arthritis in my foot now. With this last 42,195km, I’ll be raising money for Life for a Child, to provide children in Kinshasa with the necessary supplies, proper care, and some decent education they need so badly. I am extremely passionate about it, and I want to scream as hard as I can: Please people, read my website and find it in your heart to donate, donate, donate!!!”
To donate to Veerle’s efforts, please visit this link on her website. Thanks for raising awareness, Veerle!
In one, frantic breath as we prepared to go for a bike ride, Birdy proclaims:
So when my brother, Chris, a seasoned kayak and sailing instructor, told me that he’d been thinking about a project to bring people with diabetes together, I was all ears. Chris had been told some years before that people with diabetes would struggle to take on some of the adventurous mountain hikes he so loved, because of the drastic effect it would have on blood sugars. Well, for Chris that explanation just wasn’t good enough. To sit it out: because of diabetes? No. That simply won’t do. So we sat. And we planned. And we hatched. We moulded thoughts and bent ideas as to how we could create something for people affected by diabetes, by people affected by diabetes. And with a touch of time, a dash of courage and a pinch of determination, 
A little bio action from Anna: “My name is Anna and I am many things: I am a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend. I’m a wannabe surfer, an animal lover and an amateur photographer whose very best work is only slightly North of mediocre. I love the outdoors, naps and chocolate of any kind. I am also a Type 1 diabetic (insulin dependent, juvenile onset, the beast has many names). Diagnosed in Germany at four years old, it was only as I turned 27 and started blogging at Insulin Independent, that I discovered the advancing powerhouse that was the diabetes online community. Now, living in Hampshire, England, I have the honour of having met and become friends with countless people affected diabetes, thanks to that come-as-you-are community spirit.”
I’m climbing up on a new bandwagon.
