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August's Charity of the Month: Diabetes Research Institute Foundation

 

Medical Research

Juan Elias Calles, CLU, ChFC, has a personal investment in the volunteer work that he does for the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRIF). In 1985, at the age of nine, his daughter Ivette was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The MDRT Foundation awarded a $5,000 grant to the DRIF to help fund a research program to identify the specific traits that serve as indicators for the onset of type 1 diabetes. This grant was sponsored by Calles, a 33-year MDRT member and Foundation Gold Knight from Coral Gables, Florida.

DRIF was founded in 1972 by a small group of parents with children who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Today, DRIF in association with the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine is world renowned for diabetes research.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the body does not produce insulin, the hormone needed to convert food into energy for a healthy life. Without insulin, sugar and fats can stay in the bloodstream, which eventually damages vital organs, and increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, blindness and amputation. In order to avoid complications, daily insulin injections or an insulin pump are necessary to help people with type 1 diabetes manage their blood-glucose levels.

Although it is commonly diagnosed in childhood, type 1 diabetes can also be first diagnosed in adulthood. More than 24 million people in the United States live with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Today, Calles remains a loyal supporter and advocate for DRIF and has served on their board of directors for many years. “DRIF has helped provide advances that have allowed my daughter to keep her diabetes under control,” Calles said. DRIF is committed to continuing to provide funding for ongoing research that will one day hopefully provide a cure for diabetes.