THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008

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Washington Students Walk For Fellow Classmate

Tristan Gammell is a 4th Grade student at Washington Elementary School in Glenview. He was diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was 12 months old.

Students at the East Maine School Dist. 63 school, located on Golf Road just inside Glenview, took a half hour out of their day last week to walk for Tristan as part of the Walk for Diabetes fundraising drive.

Teacher Eileen Harford, who helped organize the event, said last year children participated in a fundraiser for heart disease research but this year felt they needed to focus on diabetes as one of their own was affected by it.

Tristan's mother Chris Gammell was at the event. She said when the family first found out about Tristan's condition it took some readjustments.

Chris quit her job as a caseworker for seniors to stay at home and more closely monitor Tristan's blood sugar. Since then she has gone back to work part time as the family fell into a more regular routine and Tristan begins to give him self insulin injections.

Chris said Tristan has been giving him self the injections since the age of six.

She said Tristan's blood sugar must be checked six times a day and insulin shots given four tines a day.

Tristan has the less common form of type one diabetes, a disorder in which the body does not make insulin to process glucose (sugars). The more common type two diabetes is caused when the body is not able to fully process glucose. Type two is often caused by obesity and a genetic pre-disposition.

At the event on Friday, May 8, school officials told the Journal they collected $1,450 in pledges for the childrens' half hour walk, with more expected to come in.

---Tom Robb