On this episode you will get to know Nyasha.

Nyasha is community youth worker that

lives with type one diabetes. She is strengthened

in her diagnosis and how she needs to take care of self.

Nyasha lives with multiple diagnosis and feels as though life happens and unwinds and it is a lot of coming back to the drawing board with diabetes, but she shares that its ok to start over and build new and better habits. If she could, she would retire from diabetes.

Nyasha was first misdiagnosed in 2019-2020 with T2D. Her Brother who is 4 yrs older than her was diagnosed with T2D a few years prior, and because of this she went in to get her own a1c checked and it was showing borderline diabetes.

Even after changing her lifestyle and being given metformin, she remained sick. Every time she checked her blood sugar it was not showing the work she put in.

She eventually purchased a CGM out of pocket because insurance would not cover it. During this time, she was working out nonstop, doing intermittent fasting, playing basketball but still remained sick.

Her fingerstick would only read high! She had a nurse that asked if she had ever been tested for T1D. At the time Nyasha thought that only young people could get it because it was 'Juvenile Diabetes.'

Initially, she didn't have any autoantibody labs run. She got the labs done after speaking with this nurse and it showed that she has T1D. After this she shared it with her brother because even though he was a few years into his own diagnosis, he had remained sick and had lost over 70lbs.

Her diagnosis, his diagnosis both came with prejudice and ageism. It was assumed that she was living an unhealthy lifestyle when both her and her brother are athletes.

Eventually, she had to get emergency surgeries and was hospitalized due to not being able to heal.

Today she acknowledges that her and her endo have a better relationship. She tells him today, "Lets just be real about it."

Along with T1D, in 2018 she was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder and before that in 2012 she was diagnosed with

narcolepsy. Nyasha acknowledges that since she has received her T1D diagnosis and insulin, she has not had any severe manic or depressive episodes or sleep attacks.

Niyasha is also a graduate of Yale!

follow Nyasha on instagram

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

One person can change the world

@td1_star

On this episode you will be enlightened, enriched and receive the gift that is Justat Kajuju. Justar is from and lives in Kenya. She was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes 7 years ago. Her dad has lived with diabetes for over 20 years.

Justat wants to help impact young people and give them hope on living with Diabetes.

Justat is a researcher in diabetes and a passionate Diabetes Advocate and Founder of DiaHope Africa, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting individuals living with and at risk of diabetes. Through DiaHope Africa, she leads initiatives focused on diabetes education, awareness, and access to essential healthcare services. She has participated in Dedoc Voices in Berlin ,Lisbon and is a proud member of the Young Leaders in Diabetes program under the International Diabetes Federation.

DiaHope - organization gets in touch with young people living with diabetes and their teachers to help share what it is living with diabetes.

Her main journey is making education available for everyone.

During her diagnosis her medical practitioner said some very unkind words like, you're supposed to be dead, you're supposed to be in the morgue, and this affected Justar tremendously and from that moment she wanted people living with a health condition to know not to allow these words to affect their push to better themselves.

After interacting with many young people in Kenya she realizes that people are getting the wrong info

and they perceive things differently due to accessing supplies being very difficult.

Justat reiterates how it takes a lot to convince people that they won't be judged due to their diabetes and that it is ok to be filmed and take pictures and show that you have diabetes.

Per Justat, It's important to address education and access to insulin first.

Diabetes should not deprive anyone the privileges that everyone else has.

On this episode you will hear from Monique. Monique was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes in 1972 at ten years young. After her diagnosis she stayed in the hospital for 2 weeks.

The spring before diagnosis she remembers spending all her money at the fair on lemonade. By the summer her father noticed her drinking a ton and frequenting the bathroom, but he chalked it up to it being summer.

After a family friend returned from vacation, she told her mother that she noticed Monique had lost a lot of weight over the two weeks she was away. Her mom had noticed that she was also was able to put on a pair of shorts that normally were too small and that she had put in the donate pile.

After the friend's mention, her mom took her to the ER.

The doctor asked her to urinate in a gallon jug, she filled two gallons. He also put a ketone pill in the urine, and it turned dark purple almost black. This was at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

During her hospital stay she met a young girl name Linda her age, that was diagnosed at the same time. They remained friends for a few years and kept in touch. Linda also had 5 brothers that were diagnosed with T1D ahead her own diagnosis.

Upon returning to school after the summer Monique's teacher asked, "Little Miss Gordon what did you do for summer break?" Her reply was that she was in the hospital. Her teacher encouraged her to talk about her diabetes.

He also helped her with teaching a lesson to her classmates on diabetes in 1972. His mom lived with T2.

Monique recalls when she was young, the refrigerator was her place of refuge. Not for food, but to cry. When a program came on about diabetes she would go there to cry. There was a tv show called Dr Welby MD and in one episode titled Prisoner of the Islet Cell, it was about a 10 year old with diabetes and it came on when she was in the hospital. She started crying when Dr Welby spoke about diabetes complications.

When she was released from the hospital on Ch 6 news they featured a 12-yr old with diabetes that had gone blind in one eye, Monique got up and went behind the refrigerator and cried. No one ever knew.

Today Monique has lived with Type One Diabetes for 52 years and is definitely someone in the community that everyone should get to know.

Follow Monique on Instagram

On this episode you will hear from ⁠Ciara⁠. ⁠Ciara⁠ is a dancer and choreographer from Chicago. She also is big in to visual artist and doing hair as well.

She was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes at 9 years young after her grandmom who is a nurse recognized some signs.

Her grandmom took her to one hospital and then her mom took her to another. After diagnosis, she

asked "Why her" and was upset that she was a kid that had to manage diabetes. She recalls her hospital stay and being there with other kids diagnosed with diabetes and coloring and playing with them. Some of her classmates also came to the hospital and gave her gifts. She recalls after returning to school her normal routine continued and that she met other type one diabetics at school.

In middle school at times, she did feel left out, and kids would ask for her snacks. While in school she didn't really talk to people about her diabetes and just was enjoying life. At times she did question if her friends even cared if she had diabetes and thought that they should. During this time, she was very active in athletics, including dance and soccer.

Ciara got her first insulin pump during her sophomore year of high school and noticed how with this experience

she could tell the differences of insulin as compared to MDI.

In this episode we speak about the effort in diabetes care and how it is enough! It is enough considering that we have to take on the sole responsibility of keeping ourselves well and alive.

On the day a cure is here she will thank God and share appreciation for the years living with diabetes and all that she did to live. Ciara speaks it into existence and tells all that the work that we do as type one diabetics was and is all worth it. In her words, "It was all worth it!"

Follow Ciara on ⁠Instagram⁠

⁠Join⁠ a dance class taught by Ciara at The Puzzlebox Dance Studio

Watch Ciara's diagnosis story on YouTube ⁠here⁠

In this episode you will hear from Julian @over_the_hillz_

Julian is the recent recipient of a duo-of pancreas and kidney.

Julian was the first and only person in his county (Orange County, California) to receive a dual transplant.

This second chance at life Julian is doing his all to not only help himself heal but the world moving forward!

Julian was diagnosed with diabetes at 14 and from the moment forward began his journey in to living with chronic health conditions.

In 2020 at 28 he had a stroke while in the hospital being treated for onset of chronic kidney failure. Having had this stroke, it was a great shock!

Julian is the gift that keeps on giving! While managing T1D as a young teen he decided to live his life!

Living his life by getting out and joining the workforce so that he could take care of his health first.

He didn't go to high school because of his diabetes, instead deciding that living with diabetes meant a shortened life and therefore he would just do what he need and wanted.

Julian lived with diabetes for 18 years and chronic kidney disease for 4 years ahead of his transplants. He began dialysis right away, expecting to die. When he was shared how dialysis could extend his life, he thanked God.

During this conversation we talk about health care and access to needed procedures. I learn that people that are not born within American borders are not permitted to have these transplants. Luckily his mom was pregnant with him when she came to the US, therefor he qualified for a transplant.

As a young adult he went back to school (community college) to get his certification in business management

and with that he was able to get higher positions in companies and gift his family greater opportunity.

While he was doing everything to stay alive, he also helped uplift his people and bring them along and

lift them up!

Listen to Julian's entire story which includes questions from the online diabetic community regarding

his transplants. 20 days post his transplants he still watches his blood sugar and when he hears certain beeps that sound like the Dexcom he looks around.