JDRF is the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. Our strength lies in our exclusive focus and singular influence on the worldwide effort to end T1D. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that strikes both children and adults suddenly. It has nothing to do with diet or lifestyle. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. And, at present, there is no cure. In T1D, your pancreas stops producing insulin—a hormone the body needs to get energy from food. This means a process your body does naturally and automatically becomes something that now requires your daily attention and manual intervention. If you have T1D, you must constantly monitor your blood-sugar level, inject or infuse insulin through a pump, and carefully balance these insulin doses with your eating and activity throughout the day and night. However, insulin is not a cure for diabetes. Even with the most vigilant disease management, a significant portion of your day will be spent with either high or low blood-sugar levels. These fluctuations place people with T1D at risk for potentially life-threatening hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic episodes as well as devastating long-term complications such as kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, blindness and amputation. JDRF has led the search for a cure for T1D since our founding in 1970. In those days, people commonly called the disease “juvenile diabetes” because it was frequently diagnosed in, and strongly associated with, young children. Our organization began as the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Later, to emphasize exactly how we planned to end the disease, we added a word and became the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Today, we know an equal number of children and adults are diagnosed every day—approximately 110 people per day. Thanks to better therapies—which JDRF funding has been instrumental in developing and making available—people with T1D live longer and stay healthier while they await the cure.