Lincoln Park resident Alexandra Case, 13, is one of nearly 200 children from throughout the U.S. selected to make an emotional pilgrimage to Capitol Hill this summer to remind Congress and the Administration of the critical need to find a cure for a disease they live with every day—type 1 (juvenile) diabetes.
Alexandra will be one of five delegates representing Illinois at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) 2003 Children’s Congress, which will take place June 22-24. During the Congress, children with type 1 diabetes—ages 2 to 17, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia—will converge on Washington, D.C. to tell their stories and urge lawmakers to help find a cure. Led by JDRF International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore, the event will include Congressional visits by the child delegates and a hearing in the Senate Committee on Government Affairs where Ms. Moore, select child delegates, researchers and business and community leaders will testify on the need for continued funding for research on type 1 diabetes.
Alexandra, an 8th grader at the Latin School, was selected for the Children’s Congress through the JDRF Illinois Chapter. Diagnosed with diabetes when she was 12, the day-to-day fight to stay alive is a struggle for her and her family. “I don’t always sleep through the night—I have to eat or drink even if I’m not hungry,” she notes. “Even when I do everything right, sometimes I still come out with high or low blood sugar and I don’t know why.”
Ms. Moore and the child delegates will thank Members of Congress for passing the Special Juvenile Diabetes Research Program, which resulted in $750 million in type 1 diabetes research funding over five years, and ask them to support the Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation Act of 2003 and a 10 percent increase in overall funding for medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
For more information, visit www.jdrfillinois.org or call (312) 670-0313.
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