Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Sunday at Colley Reserve in Glenelg I'm going to be really proud to take part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's One Walk for a world free of type 1 diabetes. The JDRF was founded by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, bringing together a grassroots network of parents and their children who are living with the disease. One Walk events have raised $85 million worldwide to date, but there is still so much more to be done.

Shanna McGrath from JDRF is a fantastic young South Australian leader. I first met Shanna at the 2012 Promise to Remember Me Campaign for JDRF's Kids in the House when she was just 15. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of six and has now been living with the condition for 15 years. The condition affects many aspects of Shanna's life. She always has to think about what she is eating, how she is exercising and many other things that could affect her blood sugar levels and future health.

Since that 2012 visit to this house, Shanna has grown into a uniquely impressive young leader. She's the lead JDRF government advocate for my state of South Australia. She's never let diabetes hold her back. She's travelled widely, gone skydiving and even started her own small business. In August this year, she returned to Parliament House as part of the 2018 Kids in the House delegation. Although Shanna has learned to live with the condition, she still strives for a cure not just for herself but for the nearly 150,000 people living with type 1 diabetes here in Australia.

Shanna brought with her five-year-old Theodore Aslanidis and his mother, Julie, from my electorate of Port Adelaide. Theodore was diagnosed in September last year when he was just four years of age. This was a scary, difficult time for Theodore and his parents, and to this day remains a relentless and tireless daily effort of needles, insulin, finger pricks and food monitoring to keep him healthy. In years gone by, without the progress achieved by JDRF, this would have been even more nerve-racking for the Aslanidis family. Research into technology, such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring, allows Julie, like other parents, to constantly check Theodore's blood sugar on her phone, even while Theodore is sleeping, out playing or at school.

Now their focus is on a cure, which would mean kids like Theodore could live a carefree life and parents like Julie could breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that their child wouldn't suffer a dangerous high or low at any moment. The JDRF's Clinical Research Network is aiming for $50 million in funding over five years to focus on research for that cure. I look forward to walking with the JDRF on Sunday in their non-partisan SA pollies team, and encourage all my South Australian colleagues from all sides to join us in walking to make type 1 type none.