I had no idea until recently, but June of last year Children With Diabetes (CWD) issued their Journey Award. Similar to the Joslin Diabetes Center, CWD honors the passage of 10, 25, 50 and 75 years living with type 1 diabetes. Joslin, to my knowledge, has now added a medal for 80 years!

If you have been living with type 1 for more than 10 years, you are welcome, no you are encouraged, to apply to receive your medal celebrating your journey. There’s a brief CWD application form which you’ll find here.

Meanwhile, if you have a child with type 1 diabetes, I can’t think of a better place to spend part of your summer than at Children with Diabetes’ annual Friends for Life conference in Orlando. It’s an extraordinary experience for families to get together to learn, bond, have fun and feel less alone. Details here.

Personally, having received my 50 year medal from Joslin last year, and now from CWD, in all honesty, I can’t imagine 75 years. That’s 25 years from now when I would be 94 should I live that long.

That’s a lot of years where much could change in the management of type 1 diabetes, even the discovery of a cure. But I don’t tend to think that way; I’m grateful for all the advances we have over the past 10-15 years that have made living with the condition easier compared to the first several decades I journeyed with this condition. Hopefully the good stuff will just keep coming.