Although diabetes is one of the most common illnesses found in children, you can never tell just by looking at someone if they have juvenile diabetes or not. The number of celebrities and athletes that have diabetes might surprise you. I will profile some of them this month for the diabetics out there to see just how normal (in a celebrity’s case, how extraordinary) life can be with diabetes.
For starters, the most famous person living with juvenile diabetes may be Mary Tyler Moore. A star of her own sitcom in the 1970s (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Moore pioneered the movement to cure juvenile diabetes by becoming a face for juvenile diabetes. Today, she is the international chair for JDRF.
She is a five-time Emmy winner for her role on the Mary Tyler Moore show, but she now spends her days lobbying for action on Capitol Hill. Moore tells people that finding a cure for diabetes is a “national responsibility” and that a cure must be found so the children living with diabetes can “avoid their own morality.”
Moore risked stigmatization in the television industry for having juvenile diabetes. Luckily, she never let it get in her way, and actors today do not have to worry about having diabetes because she was the front-runner for proving that diabetes does not have to stop people from living their dreams.
By becoming an advocate for juvenile diabetes in the 1980s (she was diagnosed in the 1960s), Moore helped increase research dollars from $3 million to $50 million annually. Her impact on the diabetic community has been extreme, and all who are affected by juvenile diabetes will remember her work in the name of a cure.