Music helps find cure for diabetes
It’s 2 a.m., and though the rest of the world sleeps, USU alumna Amy Creer wakes up her 10-year-old son Tyler to prick his finger and test his blood sugar.
Tyler was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes Aug. 17. Since his release from the hospital, finger pricks have become part of the family’s daily and nightly routines.
“Before we eat anything, we have to count every single carb that goes in his body. For every carb he eats, we have to put in more insulin,” Creer said. “When he plays sports, it’s even trickier, because you have to test his blood sugar when he’s there and give him sugary snacks at half-time.”
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to make glucose and give cells energy. It is more common among children but can also occur in adults.
“Tyler is so good,” Creer said. “He just says things like, ‘I’ve got it. There’s nothing I could do to prevent it. There’s nothing I could do to change it. I’m going to live with it.'”
There is no cure for this disease yet, but the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is a worldwide organization dedicated to finding one.
According to the JDRF website, the organization has raised $1.5 billion for research since it began in 1970. Last year it funded $107 million for research in 19 different countries.
“Our biggest fundraiser is our walk program,” Utah’s JDRF Special Events Coordinator Stacey McAllister said.
JDRF’s Walk to Cure Diabetes occurs annually and starts in Logan Sept. 17, at Willow Park, at 9 a.m. To get the community thinking about diabetes, junior Mike Balls, a computer science major, said he is organizing the Rock Against Diabetes concert Sept. 10.
Balls works at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he said the employees are asked to raise money for JDRF every year.
“We did another concert in 2007, and I learned a lot,” Balls said. “I’ve been planning this second event in my head ever since the end of the first one.”
Balls said his mother has Type 1 diabetes, so the personal connection gives him a greater desire to help.
“I just look at how she has to handle that, and I can’t imagine a kid doing that,” Balls said.
There are 175,000 people in the world who have diabetes, but only about 10 percent are Type 1, according to Laura Western, executive director for the Utah chapter of JDRF.
“Statistically, we are slightly higher here (in Utah), but that could be because we have more children,” Western said.
The event in 2007 raised $2,200. Balls said he’s been able to apply what he learned and adapt the event to run more smoothly this year.
“The event starts at 11 o’clock in the morning and goes until 10 at night,” Balls said. “We have 11 bands — 10 of which are local. It will be in the Chase Fine Arts Center courtyard, just north of Kent Concert Hall. There’ll be concessions and T-shirts, and it’s just going to be a fun and rockin’ time.”
Balls said this year the Caine College of the Arts has agreed to help sponsor the event, thus adding to on-campus publicity.
Tona Bronson, a representative from Thermo Fisher Scientific who is heading up the event, said they hope to significantly increase fundraising with this event.
“This disease has a lot of affects on the body,” Bronson said. “It can lead to blindness, kidney failure, and people live with it until death.”
Bronson said Thermo Fisher Scientific provides media, along with the bioprocess containers used in research for JDRF. Since 2006, she’s been involved with JDRF and served on the state board of directors for a couple of years.
“For me, (JDRF) is important because it’s just helping people, knowing we can make a difference in children who are suffering,” Bronson said. “We’re asking for a $5 minimum admission donation, and I don’t know where else you can go to a concert for that cheap that’s for a good cause.”
One of the bands that will be playing at Rock Against Diabetes — For Tomorrow We Die — recently played at the Vans Warped Tour. Band synth player Rex Davis said he prefers concerts like the one they’ll play tomorrow.
“Really, we like playing shows in Logan a lot more,” Davis said. “They’re just so much more personal, and it’s a really good cause.”
Davis said he, like Balls, has family members with diabetes, and he likes seeing the community support this cause.
“Diabetes is a huge problem,” Balls said. “And if we could find a cure, that would be awesome.”
— m.noble@aggiemail.usu.edu