Help Me To Help Little Briana

My friend Nicole's 4 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes. This disease not only effects the children with the disease but also the whole family.

Nicole's other daughter Madison recently sent me this letter:

My name is Madison and I am 8 years old. My family lives in Winmalee NSW. I am writing to tell you a little about my very brave 4 year old sister and her life which is unlike many other kids lives because she has type 1 (juvenile) diabetes.

Briana has had diabetes for 4 months now and it has changed the lives of everyone in our family. Type 1 diabetes is different from type 2 as type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease and that means that there is nothing that the Doctors or my Mummy and Daddy could have done to prevent Briana from getting it. Because of this disease Briana's little body has stopped making insulin which we need to turn food into energy, so instead Mummy has to give Briana 4 injections every day or she would starve to death. Mummy and Daddy also have to do lots of finger prick blood tests every day and even during the night just so she can stay alive.

Briana and Mummy have to be very brave. Briana is not allowed to eat any foods with added sugar so me and my two brothers Jay and Zane don't eat any either. I miss having ice cream or lollies and cake at birthday parties but we do not want her to feel left out.

All or the needles hurt Briana alot and it hurts Mummy's feelings to give them to her, but if Mummy and Daddy don't keep good control of Briana's blood sugar levels then she is at even greater risk of getting diabetic complications like heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and amputation from nerve damage. These are all very scary things and that is why finding a cure for type 1 diabetes is so important to me and my family and the other 140 000 Australians who live with it.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's (JDRF) mission is to find a cure. The research costs a lot of money. One of the ways they raise money for this research is through the walk to cure diabetes, which my family and I are doing in October. I would love to raise lots of money and was hoping you could help my family team by making a tax free donation. I would be very happy if you could help me to try and make a difference.

You can get more information about Briana's disease or the JDRF walk at www.jdrf.org.au

Some more facts about Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes are:

• Type 1 diabetes is one of the most chronic diseases of childhood. It is more common than cancer, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and muscular dystrophy.
• An individual with type 1 diabetes will take around 65, 000 injections and 80, 000 finger prick tests in their lifetime. ( much more for Briana as she developed it so young)
  
• The incidence in children under 5 has doubled in the past 5 years and we don't know why.
  
• Around 1 in 700 children in Australia have type 1 diabetes

If you would like to help Madison reach her target, you can donate here!

If you are interested in approaching your school about hosting a walk ( around the school grounds) or a mufti day(gold coin donation) with all money donated to JDRF then you can contact Nicole by emailing me at jugglingmum at hotmail dot com and I will pass on your email to her.