Type 1 diabetes is destructive both to children and to childhood. Controlling the disease requires 24/7/365 vigilance and imposes a grueling regimen. It includes eating a carefully calculated diet, checking blood glucose levels several times each day (by lancing a finger) and insulin injections—as many as six per day—or delivery of insulin through a pump just to stay alive. It means children and families living by the clock, day and night, for the rest of their lives—lives that turn out to average about 15 years less than normal.

You can't outgrow type 1 diabetes. As JDRF International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore has said, "Diabetes is an all too personal time bomb which can go off today, tomorrow, next year, or ten years from now—a time bomb affecting millions...one which must be defused." The only solution is a cure. That's why JDRF has a singular mission: to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research as soon as possible.