After a forecast of rain throughout the morning, JDRF One Walk organiser and diabetes researcher Belinda Moore was feeling hesitant about the Sunday morning event would go.
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“When you’ve got a 90% per cent chance of rain from 9am until 4pm, you think all the work we’ve put in might be ruined,” she said.
Instead of thunderstorms, the over 100 people present at the event were greeted with clear skies and warm sunshine. Seeing so many turn out in to help raise money for type one diabetes was no surprise to Ms Moore.
“This is just what the type one community does, they always rally together. People with type one have this resilience like no one else.
“They live with a condition that is so relentless, it takes out all the spontaneity from their lives.”
Type one diabetes in children is twice as common as it was 20 years ago in Australia. Around 120,000 Australians have type one diabetes, a condition that requires regular blood sugar monitoring and insulin injections
At age 11, Lorelai Henderson has lived with type one diabetes her whole life.
Her mother Christine Henderson spoke of the every day impact it has on their lives.
“It's everyday. It doesn't matter if she's sick, if she doesn't want to, if she doesn't feel like it, she has to deal with it,” she said.
“It's just relentless, it never stops, it's always there. She's a very good swimmer but we have to check every 15 minutes because if we don't she may hyper (experience hypoglycemia leading to an insulin shock) and she could drown.”
Finding a cure, even if not for Lorelai but for future generations is Christine’s ultimate goal.
“It would be amazing if she could just take a pill and it would all be gone or even if we could work towards ensuring others don't have to endure it, that would mean everything to us.”
Federal Member for Ballarat Catherine King attended the event to present certificates to those who raised the most money ahead of the walk.
“There is a real need to find a cure and that's why holding events like these are so important,” she said.
“The research is moving in the right direction, I think we're really kicking some goals in terms of understanding a whole raft of things we didn't know before.”
Over $7,000 had been raised for the Ballarat walk.