Brooklyn Park Family Wants to Find Cure for Type 1 Diabetes
A Brooklyn Park family is on a mission to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. The chronic condition can be hard to control and is sometimes fatal.
Six-year-old Aziah McCoy is a rambunctious first grader, who likes to play basketball. Last summer, his parents noticed a change in his daily routine. He was very thirsty, drinking a lot, and using the bathroom more than normal.
“We had to stop five times in a two and half drive, so I thought he had a urinary tract infection,” said Aziah’s mother Tammy Callahan.
But doctors discovered something much more serious: Type 1 diabetes.
“When something like this just comes about out of the blue, it’s really scary,” explained Alonzo McCoy, Aziah’s father.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease and is hereditary. Aziah’s paternal grandfather has Type 1 diabetes. People with the disease don’t produce insulin, the hormone needed to covert food into energy.
Aziah now gets his insulin through injections. Every piece of food he eats has to be calculated. His parents have to guess ahead of time, how much food he’ll eat.
“He gets one unit of insulin for 20 grams of carbs that he eats in a meal,” said Callahan.
Type 1 diabetes can cause nerve damage, blindness and kidney disease if left unchecked. The family is determined to help find a cure. They’re participating in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s One Walk at the Mall of America Saturday to raise money for research. Their team is called “Aziah’s Avengers.”
For more information on the walk or to donate, click on the following link:
http://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR?team_id=251389&fr_id=7053&pg=team
