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Register family raises funds to help others with diabetes
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By Angie Hutschreider
angieh@newstribune.com
Alex, Lauren, Susie and Chuck Register received the Top Team Fundraiser award from the Show-Me Cosmopolitan Club on Friday for their fundraising efforts for diabetes.
When Alex was just 27 months old, his parents, Susie and Chuck, noticed that, following a hospital stay for croup an pneumonia, he was unusually thirsty and cranky.
Susie said that physicians told her that Alex probably had a spike in his blood sugar due to the steroids he was given in the hospital.
But weeks passed and the toddler only presented more symptoms.
After reading the symptoms of diabetes in a local ad during National Diabetes Week, Susie called Alex's physician and set an appointment.
“I demanded someone at least do a finger stick (to test his blood sugar),” she said.
Following some additional blood tests Alex was diagnosed with Type 1 or Juvenile Diabetes.
“I guess it was just mother's intuition,” she said of the diagnosis.
Alex and his family spent the next 10-12 days at the University of Missouri-Columbia taking classes to learn how to treat Alex's diabetes.
Following his diagnosis in March of 1996, the family became involved in fundraising efforts for diabetes.
Raising money is a family affair which now includes Alex, his younger sister Lauren, Susie, Chuck, aunts, uncles and grandparents.
For the past two years, the family has been walking with the Show-Me Cosmopolitan Club in Columbia.
Susie says part of the reason they travel to Columbia for the walk is that Jefferson City no longer has a walk and the money raised in Columbia stays locally - with part of it going to the University of Missouri-Columbia pediatrics.
In the last two years the team, “Alex's Family,” has been the top fundraiser for the walk. In total over the last 11 years, they have raised almost $60,000.
Alex says, “It feels great - it is awesome” to raise money for diabetes.
Susie says it does feel good, but as parents, the drive to raise the money is a little more emotional.
“The future is always a concern,” she said. “It is sitting there worrying about the milestones yet to come like Alex driving and going away to school.
“I think you raise the money so at some point in your child's life, they won't have to deal with this disease.”
The family feels education and awareness of this disease is key.
“Most people do not realize what diabetes really is - it is more than not eating sugar. It is about testing your blood sugar, about getting shots or having an insulin pump. It is about those worries of future health problems,” she said.
“I can help him control his diabetes - but I cannot cure it,” Susie said. “But as a family, we can raise money for education and the people who can cure it.”
After receiving the award Friday, Alex said, “I am glad we can raise money to try to find a cure so kids like me can have a normal life.”
When Alex was just 27 months old, his parents, Susie and Chuck, noticed that, following a hospital stay for croup an pneumonia, he was unusually thirsty and cranky.
Susie said that physicians told her that Alex probably had a spike in his blood sugar due to the steroids he was given in the hospital.
But weeks passed and the toddler only presented more symptoms.
After reading the symptoms of diabetes in a local ad during National Diabetes Week, Susie called Alex's physician and set an appointment.
“I demanded someone at least do a finger stick (to test his blood sugar),” she said.
Following some additional blood tests Alex was diagnosed with Type 1 or Juvenile Diabetes.
“I guess it was just mother's intuition,” she said of the diagnosis.
Alex and his family spent the next 10-12 days at the University of Missouri-Columbia taking classes to learn how to treat Alex's diabetes.
Following his diagnosis in March of 1996, the family became involved in fundraising efforts for diabetes.
Raising money is a family affair which now includes Alex, his younger sister Lauren, Susie, Chuck, aunts, uncles and grandparents.
For the past two years, the family has been walking with the Show-Me Cosmopolitan Club in Columbia.
Susie says part of the reason they travel to Columbia for the walk is that Jefferson City no longer has a walk and the money raised in Columbia stays locally - with part of it going to the University of Missouri-Columbia pediatrics.
In the last two years the team, “Alex's Family,” has been the top fundraiser for the walk. In total over the last 11 years, they have raised almost $60,000.
Alex says, “It feels great - it is awesome” to raise money for diabetes.
Susie says it does feel good, but as parents, the drive to raise the money is a little more emotional.
“The future is always a concern,” she said. “It is sitting there worrying about the milestones yet to come like Alex driving and going away to school.
“I think you raise the money so at some point in your child's life, they won't have to deal with this disease.”
The family feels education and awareness of this disease is key.
“Most people do not realize what diabetes really is - it is more than not eating sugar. It is about testing your blood sugar, about getting shots or having an insulin pump. It is about those worries of future health problems,” she said.
“I can help him control his diabetes - but I cannot cure it,” Susie said. “But as a family, we can raise money for education and the people who can cure it.”
After receiving the award Friday, Alex said, “I am glad we can raise money to try to find a cure so kids like me can have a normal life.”
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