Community Corner

Her Own Hero: Local Teen Fights for a Cure to Diabetes

Christine Kenny, 13, of Matawan, is diligently working to raise money to fund research

Christine Kenny, a Matawan resident and an eighth grader at Matawan Aberdeen Middle School, looks like your average thirteen-year-old.

Her light-colored hair hangs pin straight to her waist, framing a permanent smile and she is wearing skinny jeans and flats.

Detail-oriented, Kenny loves writing short stories, playing the piano, doing Irish Step Dance, playing tennis, riding her bike, swimming, doing arts and crafts or just relaxing with a book.

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That might sound like a plateful, but it is nothing when you add in her role as vice president of the student council and yearbook photographer or her spots in the middle school chorus and the band, where she plays the xylophone.

Aside from her endless energy, contagious passion for life and numerous talents, Kenny is also fighting diligently for a cure to a disease she knows all too well. 

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Kenny volunteers regularly with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in Nov. of 1999 when she was only 22 months old.

Type 1 Diabetes is a chronic disease that does not have a cure. Symptoms include lethargy, frequent urination, extreme thirst, increased appetite and sudden weightloss, according to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In a person with type 1 diabetes, the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are destroyed by immune cells.

Kenny stays active and tries to not let diabetes rule her life, but it often gets in the way. Since her diagnosis, she has had to test her blood sugar 10-15 times a day and takes 4 insulin injections a day. Kenny has been testing her own blood sugar by pricking her finger since she was in Kindergarten. She has been doing her own insulin injections since Second Grade. Kenny has pricked her finger to test her blood sugar over 50,000 times. She has taken about 17,000 insulin shots.

A year after her diagnosis, Kenny's parents, Charles and Stephanie, began participating in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes in Avon under the team name "Christine's Crusaders."

This year, at age 13, Kenny took over as team captain. The walk took place on Oct. 9, but team members are still raising money. Her team has already surpassed $10,000. Since their first walk in 2000, "Christine's Crusaders" has raised over $225,000.00 for the JDRF.

"I felt that if I took over I could really make a difference. I always liked helping my mom with it," she said. "Sometimes I dream of being a doctor and finding a cure for diabetes, and I think that taking over the team is one step closer to that."

Kenny also starred in a JDRF advertisement shown in popular magazines such as Time, Elle Girl and Good Housekeeping and two public service announcements - one earlier this year and one when she was four-years old - that played on TV and in movie theaters alongside Mary Tyler Moore, the spokeswoman for JDRF.

"I was so excited," she said. "I think it raises my confidence level because by each thing I do I feel that I'm making a difference and getting the word out. It feels good to tell someone about something that makes a big difference in your life."

In fifth grade, Kenny won a "Dear Mr. President" contest through Scholastic Books. She wrote a letter to President Barack Obama telling him what she believed he should work on during his term in office. Kenny expressed the need for diabetes research to find a cure for a disease that affects so many people.

To her delight, President Obama responded to her letter. She returned home from school to find a first class piece of mail waiting on her front porch, with the White House listed in the return address.

"He quoted a sentence from my letter and said he expected great things from me and that he hopes it encourages me to help people and to face challenges," she said.

"I feel like when President Obama was saying those things, it was the whole world saying those things so it didn't really put that much pressure on me. But because I have had diabetes I am confident that I am the person who will find the cure. It might be easier for me to pick up, "Oh, you have to do this," because this is something I deal with regularly."

If you would like to make a donation to Christine Kenny's team, "Christine's Crusaders," you can do so on the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation website.


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