Age: 17
Age at T1D diagnosis: 7

Imagine a world without T1D, asks Cindy. “There would be no more little kids crying as their parents try to coax them into poking their fingers. There would be no more use for diabetes supplies. There would be no more little kids in hospital beds receiving the news that they have type 1 diabetes. I have a small dream of becoming an endocrinologist, but I have an even bigger dream of a world without type 1 diabetes.”

Cindy is already working toward both of those dreams. As a youth ambassador and former JDRF intern, she has participated in Walk events and in the Promise to Remember Me Campaign, and discussed research funding with her Congressman. She has also interned at a hospital, where she worked with professors and even conducted her own experiment testing different mediums on different cell densities.