What a great day! Ashleigh was asked by our local JDRF chapter to meet with our congressman, Mark DeSaulnier. Ashleigh and 2 other kids along with JDRF and the children's parents got to join. This was an important meeting as we all got to talk about what it was like to be a parent of a child with T1D and then the kids got to talk and say what its like living with T1D. We talked about the SDP and how its important to keep funding it. For those that don't know, The Special Diabetes Program (SDP) is a critical program that provides $150 million annually for type 1 diabetes (T1D) research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the country’s premier medical research agency. The SDP was renewed on February 9, 2018 and will expire on September 30, 2019.
In June 2016, Senate Diabetes Caucus Co-Chairs Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Congressional Diabetes Caucus Co-Chairs Tom Reed (R-NY) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) invited their colleagues to join them on bipartisan support letters to Senate and House Leadership recognizing the important contributions of the SDP. Thanks to the dedication and persistence of JDRF Advocates – who met with, and contacted their U.S. Representative and Senators, asking them to sign the SDP support letters – we achieved amazing results this year with 75 Senators and 356 Representatives signing on!!! This was a great success!
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