G’day from Wadawurrung Country (Australia) Everyone!

Thank you for visiting my FUNraising page for JDRF UK! I hope you’ll stay a for a bit, read my story, and support this purposeful philanthropic enterprise for JDRF.

I'm delighted to be running the 2024 TCS London Marathon with Team JDRF! If all goes well in Tokyo, London will be the 4th Star in my Six Star Journey to complete the World Marathon Majors! My bonus goal is to be the slowest runner with type 1 diabetes to complete the World Marathon Majors.

It is my great honor, privilege and pleasure to dedicate this marathon to Kaggi, a beautiful, generous, gracious and fierce Mama of a T1D warrior, who hails from London and her gorgeous T1D warrior daughter Celeste. You both inspire me and keep me going in this fight to cure type 1 diabetes.

I am humbled by the opportunity to run the London Marathon. It’s such an incredible privilege to help infuse some coins, dollars, money, ducats, and much needed funds into JDRF, whose global reach is at the forefront of advocating for a better life for everyone living with type 1 diabetes while working towards a future free from type 1 diabetes.

My diabetes story began about 5 and a half years ago, shortly after finishing my first marathon (which I suspect I ran undiagnosed), the Rock n’ Roll San Diego Marathon. I was experiencing the classic 4 symptoms: Excessive Thirst, Frequent Urination, Exhaustion and Weight Loss. I felt terrible. I knew something wasn’t right when I started training for the Melbourne Marathon and had the worst run in my life. The effort to manage 5K was colossal. I couldn’t get enough rest. Simple activities were laborious. I struggled in all aspects of my life. I relayed my symptoms to my mom, and she mentioned diabetes. I didn’t seriously consider it as in my mind I was thinking type 2 and I had been on a health and weight loss journey and was otherwise quite fit and healthy. Since then, I’ve unlearned many of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the different types of diabetes.

I was finally motivated to go to my doctor when I felt quite miserable on my 39th birthday. I had been feeling quite unwell for several weeks at this point and could barely manage to get through my own birthday celebration. That coupled with the dwindling weight prompted the call to my doctor as I knew how challenging it was for me to lose weight in the past and to do so without any effort was alarming.

Sure enough my doctor gave me a preliminary diagnosis of type 1 diabetes and sent me to the Emergency Room. Thankfully my partner accompanied me to the appointment and took me to the ER. I was fortunate enough to have an attentive caring doctor, who also has a personal connection with type 1 diabetes.

In the ER I was administered insulin and fluids, endured a battery of tests and was given a crash course in type 1 diabetes by the great team at University Hospital Geelong.

My diagnosis story took an interesting turn when I tested negative to all known type 1 diabetes antibodies. It is an autoimmune disease, but a small percentage of people test negative for known antibodies and are categorized as having idiopathic type 1 diabetes. It appears to predominantly impact people of color and is under-researched and I’m hoping to bring more awareness to this underrepresented group of people with idiopathic type 1 diabetes.

I have since adjusted to life with type 1 diabetes as best I can. Every day is an experiment and an adventure. I didn’t get to run the Melbourne Marathon the year of diagnosis. I finally ran it in 2022, while completing my own customized Triple Crown where I ran 3 Marathons in 3 Months: The Nike Melbourne Marathon, The TCS New York City Marathon and the Honolulu Marathon (marathons #4, #5 and #6). It took 2 years after diagnosis to get my second marathon done, a virtual one during the height of the pandemic, on Wadawurrung Country (Geelong, Australia). I ran my third marathon in my hometown of San Diego, CA on Kumeyaay Country. In 2023 I tackled marathons #7 and #8 in San Francisco and Chicago, the birth places of my parents and proudly ran in their honor.

So far this year I ran the Tokyo March and am slated to run TCS London Marathon, Sydney Marathon, and BMW Berlin Marathon. I’m proud to be on this odyssey and have learned so much about myself in the process. I look forward to running these marathons in vibrant, colorful style and hopefully with blood sugars in range.

Thank you for taking the time to read some of my story. I encourage you to learn more about JDRF and the vital work they do. I’d love for you to Help support Team JDRF by giving a gift today. All of the funds raised go to JDRF to support their mission to treat, prevent and ultimately cure type 1 diabetes.

I highly encourage you to share my FUNraising page and send it to anyone you think might be interested in donating! Thank you all! Be well and live in thrivance!