Susan Barr
Kern Valley Sun

Brian and Dawn Gresham, of Mount Mesa, thought they were leading an ideal small-town life along with their three young sons. Suddenly in late summer of this year, their eldest son Beau, aged 11 experienced a life threatening health crisis that shook the family to its very core.

According to his parents, the up until then healthy youngster began to undergo some subtle changes. He started to lose weight, began to get lethargic and his normal boyish enthusiasm for life began to wane. There were also some other not-so-obvious signs that something might be awry; increased thirst and frequent urination.

The Gresham family left, dad Brian; Beau, middle; Dustin, back row; mom Dawn; and Austin pose for a family picture.

The couple scheduled an appointment for the youngster to see a doctor to try and find out what was happening. Suddenly his condition deteriorated quickly and the boy became weak and severely chilled. His parents took him to the local ER and it wasn’t long before the truth began to emerge. When the youngster’s blood sugar was tested, it was so high it was off the charts and that was when his parents heard the word diabetes mentioned for the first time. From that moment on, everything went into overdrive. Stabilizing the boy became crucial and plans were quickly made to airlift him to transport him to a facility that would be better equipped to help him.

After a lengthy helicopter ride, Beau and his mother arrived at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. His father made the trip down by car. Shortly after that, the family began learning about what would be involved in learning to control the disease that had taken over their son’s life – Type 1 diabetes. The Gresham’s were blessed with a wonderful medical team. Dawn gratefully stated, “We left there knowing more tha we ever expected to.”

Now that their son is getting back to a new type of normal, the Gresham’s have accepted that Beau will be insulin dependent for the rest of his life. That is what is driving them in their commitment to raise money to fund a cure for juvenile diabetes. On November 7, the Gresham Family and their friends will be walking for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Walk to Cure Diabetes and will join one-half million other walkers across the country as they try to raise $105 million. Beau’s group of avid supporters have nicknamed themselves “Beau’s Battalion.”

JDRF International is the leading charitable funder and advocate of type 1

(juvenile) diabetes research worldwide.  The mission of JDRF is to

find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of

research. Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than $1.3 billion to diabetes research.

Type 1 (Juvenile) diabetes strikes children suddenly and makes them dependent on

injected or pumped insulin for life, and carries the constant threat of devastating complications such as blindness, amputation, heart disease and stroke, and kidney failure. Insulin is not a cure for the disease, it is merely life support. Scientists do not yet know exactly what causes type 1diabetes, but they believe that autoimmune, genetic, and environmental factors are involved. As many as 3 million Americans* have type 1 diabetes.

People interested in helping with this worthwhile cause can visit www.walkjdrf.org and make a tax deductible donation.