Campaign for Diabetes Cure Teen Lobbies at Washington, D.C., Event Asking Lawmakers for Research Money
Posted on: Monday, 15 August 2005, 12:01 CDT
Liz Kramm takes insulin every day because she has Type 1 diabetes.
"Insulin is not a cure" is her mantra.
This summer, the 13-year-old took that message to Washington, D.C., to lobby for additional money to find a cure for the disease, which is also called juvenile diabetes because it tends to affect young people.
Liz, an eighth-grader at Episcopal Middle School, went as one of the three Louisiana young people chosen as ambassadors to the Children's Congress 2005 sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Liz and the other 149 ambassadors are among the 1.3 million Americans with the disease.
Liz met with Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter and their staffs.
"For both, we met with their aides and told them our story and why we need research," Liz said.
"At the end, they (the senators) came in and said 'hi' and we got a picture. It was cool." She said she also later met with Rep. Richard Baker.
Campaigning for a cure is not new for Liz.
She and her mother, Nancy, lobbied for stem-cell research in Louisiana earlier in the year.
Liz even missed school a few times so she could try to influence Louisiana legislators.
"I hope to be part of the reason that researchers find a cure for diabetes and the other life-threatening illnesses that stem-cell research can help," Liz said.
The past four years, she has participated in Walk to Cure Diabetes and volunteered at JDRF Bar-B-Cure Galas.
She sees her efforts as literally fighting for her life because of the possible long-term ramifications of the disease.
"I could go blind. I could lose a leg. I could go into a coma."
Meanwhile, she copes with the everyday problems associated with the disease.
Liz cites "loss of freedom" from diabetes as a major problem as a teenager.
There's no reprieve from checking her blood sugar, even when hanging out with friends.
She's fortunate, she said.
"My friends, they remind me. They're always there for me," Liz said.
Meeting Olympic champion Gary Hall Jr. and Mary Tyler Moore - both vibrant survivors of juvenile diabetes - is inspiring, Liz said.
Like Hall, she's an athlete, participating in volleyball and soccer.
She hopes to return to swimming this year, a sport she participated in until she was a sixth-grader.
"You have to be really careful that your blood sugars don't drop," she said.
When Liz, then 8, was diagnosed with diabetes, she didn't know what it meant.
"My school had done the play 'Steel Magnolias' once, but other than that I had never heard of such a disease," she writes in a letter to Louisiana congressional members.
She has since learned all about finger pricks, counting carbs and insulin shots.
"A cure for diabetes is no small matter to me," reads one of the pages in the scrapbook she prepared for the Louisiana delegation.
KidSmart
MANTRA: A repeated phrase, sentence or refrain used as a meditation or to emphasize a message.
Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.
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