TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — November was Diabetes Awareness Month... so here we are, December 1st, moving on to the next month and the next cause.
But for those diagnosed with type 1, the reality is that no date on the calendar turns the page on this lifelong battle. But no one has to fight it alone
This is called:
"Running for a Cure"
Tick tock, tick tock
The hands on the clock keep moving
But do the doctors' in finding a cure?
11-year-old Athena Kehoe had no way of knowing the clock would move her life and her career right along. The 3:00 am alarm is an early one, even for morning news reporters.
By the time she penned this poem out of childhood frustration, she'd already been battling an incurable disease longer than she could remember.
"All I remember in my life was having diabetes," Athena said.
Ba-boom, ba-boom …
My heart beats as fast as a cheetah
But do the doctors' hearts beat because they are working so hard?
Athena's parents also struggled with those helpless questions to which there are no answers.
"It's like a real punch in the gut when it happens... when you get that news," Dan Kehoe told me.
"As a parent, you couldn't think there was anything worse, right... at the time."
Click-click
Every time I punch a number into my pump I wonder
Will this be the last time?
"Definitely middle school I think that I was doing it alone because I did shots, through, for the first 3 years until I was 7," Athena recalls as she prepares her pump.
"So now we're putting the insulin back into the cartridge..."
Step, breathe. Step, breathe.
Each step run is another second closer to finding a cure
But how long do I have to run?
Athena always had the support of her mom and dad and her older sister but she didn't necessarily feel like her family could help lighten the load.
"I remember thinking that a lot like why do I have it and she doesn't? Like why was it me?"
Inhale, exhale.
I don't stop breathing until there's a cure.
But suddenly it feels like I don't have much air left at all
According to the CDC, nearly 2,000,000 Americans live with type 1 diabetes or TD1.
And that includes more than 300,000 young people under the age of 20.
As many as 30,000 more are diagnosed each year with the rate of cases slightly increasing since 2002 and no cure in sight.
"I'm so glad that I didn't let that continue. That mindset of just negativity, why me, why me," Athena said.
No one would fault a 5th grader who had those feelings of desperation who couldn't see past the daily, hourly, even minute-by-minute monitoring sometimes, of blood glucose levels.
She'd learn to listen to her dad, though.
"Sometimes those types of things can spike you up. Sometimes they can spike you down you never know," Dan told me.
"They were always just on me, though, in a good way. Again if they weren't on me I would not be as healthy as I am," Athena said, "[but] there's a lot of anxiety I'd say."
But now in her 20's she manages her stress as closely as her blood sugar, to the point that she's no longer ashamed that she's different.
She's not afraid like she was in middle school to show her CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) ... snapping on a new one every 10 days.
And that means Athena's confidence can be contagious, helping to cure the next generation of any prejudice that comes along with the finger pricks or insulin pumps.
5-year-old Lily and her friends celebrate their unique challenges together.
"She's still a kid but I think she's wise beyond most kids at that age."
"What's really nice is the moms have gotten together recently."
Karley Schneider and Lori Leavitt, Lily's mother and grandmother told me it's people like Athena, who spoke at a recent diabetes awareness event, who give their daughter a role model; someone to look up to who helps them see the long life over the horizon of constant attention to healthcare instead of the life long disease.
"I like to think that that's what it does for a lot of people with diabetes. And I have met some incredible people just because this community is a pretty tight one," Karley told me.
"[It's] a proud moment as a dad and being able to see kids interact with her as well, you know, oh wow, I can be you one day right?" Dan said.
For adult Athena, the tick tock of the clock doesn't sound so heavy now.
The clicks and the pain and the pump don't add up to some diabetes doomsday.
But technology and responsibility of moving forward, never resting makes every day a blessing.
"Do I still hate diabetes? Sure, right? Where I'm kind of like... the responsibilities of managing myself 24/7 plays a role into what I do with how I work and how I did school right?"
"My diabetes, how I handle it. I can live with it. And I can live a pretty dang normal life. It is what it is. Honestly, I think I have peace knowing it is what it is," Athena said.
You can learn more at www.breakthroughtd1.org
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Dan Spindle co-anchors Good Morning Tucson on KGUN 9 and is an award-winning storyteller whose work has earned him honors from the Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys, the Associated Press and the Utah Society of Professional Journalists for both anchoring and reporting. Dan is passionate about history and loves to explore the Grand Canyon State. Share your story ideas with Dan by emailing dan.spindle@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or X.
