November 14 was World Diabetes Day, which gave a local student the chance to raise awareness for the disease.
With the help of his parents and twin brother JJ, second grader Michael visited all of Elmwood Elementary’s second grade classes to talk about how he lives with Type One diabetes.
“Unless you have Type 1 diabetes you don’t really know what’s involved with it,” said Michael’s mom Chris. “So taking a blood sugar, putting the strip into the glucometer, showing where the sites are in his body, how to use the pump, how to give a bolus for meals and snacks. I think it’s important to let the kids have a hands on and they see what Mike goes through every single day.”
Students participated in different activities to learn about what Michael uses regularly to check his blood sugar and pump insulin.
All of the second graders had t-shirts made to celebrate World Diabetes Day, and Michael’s own class helped put together a special painting for him as a “wish” for a cure for diabetes.
Elmwood first grader Sofia and Michael are the only two students at Elmwood with diabetes.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
