Letter from the Green Family

Dear Friends & Family,
As many of you know, in December 2006, Erika was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. We knew nothing of this life threatening disease. The next three days were spent at Primary Children's Hospital being educated us on this disease and teaching us how to keep her alive & healthy. Since that day our lives have changed considerably.
Over and over we were told that Erika could lead a normal life. To most people she appears to have a normal life. She is still active playing soccer, riding horses and the other normal things thirteen year old girls love to do. Most people don't realize everything that Erika must do to control her Diabetes.
Erika must prick a finger 8-10 times a day to test her blood sugar levels. That's over 3000 pokes each year. (Yes, her fingers have holes in them!) Like most teenagers, Erika likes to snack. However, her Diabetes makes this difficult to do. We worry daily about her blood sugar levels and the side effects of Diabetes which include blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, limb amputations etc. She always has to have food with her or run the risk of her blood sugar level dropping too low and sending her into a seizure and coma. To us this type of daily activity is not normal, nor is it easy to deal with day in and day out just to stay alive.
We quickly learned that Type I Diabetes is not controllable through diet & exercise. She requires insulin daily. Our only hope for Erika and children like her is that a cure can be found. She could then live a truly normal life and not run the risk of developing any of the debilitating complications associated with this disease.
In our efforts to help Erika as a family, we have decided to participate in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) “Walk To Cure Diabetes”. They are a non-profit organization that focuses solely on research to find a cure for Diabetes and its complications. What we really like is that 85% of all money raised goes directly to researching to find a cure.
In our on-going effort to help raise money for a cure, we have formed a walking team of family & friends known as “Mutant Alleles” (Erika's choice!) We would like to ask for your support in walking with us as part of our Mutant Alleles team and/or making a donation by sponsoring our team.
Donations can be given directly to us (Make checks payable to JDRF) or you can also make a donation on-line at http://walk.jdrf.org/.
If you would like to join us for the walk you can register on-line at http://walk.jdrf.org/ Our team color is green. Please wear a green shirt if possible. You can also call us if you would like to participate.
Details for the walk are:
Walk Name: Tri-County, UT
Venue: Wheeler Farm
Date of Walk: 8/23/2008 (Saturday)
Registration Start Time: 8:30 AM