On this episode you will hear from the perspective of Chase, a 16-year-old mature, young man. He is a man amongst boys!

Chase was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes thirteen years ago at the young age of three.

Today he is sixteen, and a junior in high school that loves basketball and is in a dual enrollment program studying engineering and robotics.

Chase learned how to count carbs by the age of 4 and knew his basal rates by the age of 6 and he also knew how to give himself insulin manually through a syringe by the same age.

He does feel as though he has progressed faster than others his age due to this diagnosis.

As a younger kid he loved cars and motorcycles and says knowing about mechanics correlates with how he was able to deal with diabetes.

Chase is prepared for life. He gives all the honor to his mom for him becoming the human he is.

In his elementary school years he recalls, walking in the classroom when and a kid asking about his Dexcom and trying to grab it off his arm. His mom explained it to Chase that young people are curious. That's when he realized that he wasn't the same as other children.

In his younger years in school, he was told to sit out of recess and gym many times, too many to recount. Staff would approach him often asking if he was ok to play and every 5 minutes he feels as though they would call him over to check on him. It was embarrassing knowing that his peers were paying attention to it, and he was truly uncomfortable.

Once on a school field trip a teacher would not allow him to eat a hoagie and basically policed his eating until he got back to the school, instead of trusting in Chase and his ability

to care for himself. He even explained how he was able to give insulin for the carbs, but this specific teacher took it upon herself to deny him.

Chase says that he doesn't think that people understand the time that goes into living with type 1 diabetes.

Today, Chase thinks often about doing diabetes on his own as he grows into an adult. Things such as driving and having health insurance coverage does concern him.

Chase loves the community that exists within the T1D community and wants to stay involved because no one knows us like we do.

Chase's mom Courtey is gifted her flowers throughout the entirety of this episode. Thank you, mom, for being amazingly you and raising your first born and keeping him at his best, always.

Follow Chaseawayfoundation on instagram

On this episode you will hear from Shari (pronounced Shara). Shari was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes in 2022 at the age of 33.

Ahead of being diagnosed and still today she does everything to keep her mind and body clean and healed. To get this diagnosis was a great shock to her and her medical team.

Today she understands that T1D is a lifelong journey, even being diagnosed with diabetes has made her even more in control of her being, although these last 2 years have seemed considerably long.

Shari reflects on how she has had people telling her that they can reverse her diabetes and cure it and people making fun of "The healthy girl catching diabetes." Shari sees this as an education piece that people just don't know nor understand about Type One Diabetes.

These past two years have been hard and an emotional roller, but it's her story and her journey and from day one she has accepted it!

Shari is a talented and motivated speaker, singer and songwriter. You can find her music at shariclarkemusic.com

She is someone you should be engaged with in this space as she will motivate even the greatest of motivators and inspire the inspirers.

Follow Shari on instagram

at shari_clarke

During recording of this episode Rae is 35 years young and lives with Graves' disease, Type One Diabetes and Psoriasis, all of which are autoimmune diseases.

Rae was diagnosed with T1D at the age of 22 and this year her diabetes becomes a teenager. Rae was determined

during her diagnosis to keep herself at her best! She was originally misdiagnosed as type 2 and given metformin only and they realized that wasn't helping.

Rae has a great family history of T1D. Before she turned 10, she would help her grandmom with injections. This was 25 years ago with syringes. This was a part of Rae's coming of age story.

After having her grandmom deal with complications related to diabetes Rae told herself that she would get ahead of this diagnosis.

Even though many of Rae's family has lived with diabetes, she still receives misconsumptions from people about her diabetes. She still gets questions about what she eats etc.

Rae is a great success story! She knew where she wanted to be in life. Months after diagnosis her doctor told her she was going into remission because she was needing little to no insulin and she went with what her doctor said and then she went ahead with eating whatever until she started feeling the same signs as when she was diagnosed. More than likely she was in a honeymoon stage.

Rae has strayed away from some of the things that she did previously, but diabetes has not limited her. For Rae, she says that she is forever on a learning journey with diabetes, and she speaks extensively on how many things in healthcare are bypassed when you are a person of color.

You can find Rae on Instagram at raeashonni_t1d