JDRF's Kids For a Cure Lobby Day 2018

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October 28th-30th, 2018, 28 delegates from across Canada went to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to meet with over one hundred MP's and Senators collectively for JDRF's Kids For a Cure Lobby Day. I had the wonderful opportunity of being one of the delegates from Toronto! It was a really great experience for me for a multitude of reasons, all of which I will be going over in this post! So sit back, grab some popcorn, and tell your family not to bother you for a while, as it's quite a long list.

First off, let me explain a bit more about what Lobby Day is. One of the things we went to meet with Members of Parliament about was giving a huge thank-you for the government's multi-year commitment to fund Type 1 Diabetes research through the $30 million Partnership to Defeat Diabetes that was instituted in 2017. That's a lot of money, and every penny of it will be going towards research for an end to our condition, so thanking the government was a huge part of Lobby Day.

We also went to put a face to this condition, to touch the hearts of the politicians we met, and to tell them our stories. To tell them that Type 1 Diabetes isn't just a disease that exists, and that JDRF isn't just an organization that wants funding for no good reason, but that T1D is a disease that affects hundreds of thousands of Canadians and millions of people worldwide, and that the devices and research that JDRF helps to fund are making our quality of life a lot better and are fast-tracking us down the road to a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

Lastly, we did have some specific requests:

a) Join the All-Party Juvenile Diabetes Caucus

b) Write a letter to the Minster of Finance in support of the recommendations in JDRF's pre-budget submission.

If you want more information about Lobby Day, click here. That link will take you directly to JDRF's website (Specifically the page on Lobby Day. There are also pictures and background information on all the delegates. You just click on the "Meet Our Delegates" button and you'll find a list of all the delegates with pictures and videos and biographies and all of us being all awesome, so go check that out!) and you can find out everything you want to know!

But if you pretty much understand it by my explanation, or if you know me personally and are just reading this so I can get more views and are tired of me talking about it so you already know what it is (thank you, Mother! Shout-out to you!), then you can skip that and just get on with reading this post. Speaking of which, let's move on to the fun part!

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Number 1 in my list of Things I Loved About My Trip to Ottawa and Parliament Hill is...

(drum roll please)

The hotel was really nice, and we had our own escalators leading up to this huge room that JDRF had rented!! How cool is that?? I mean, come on! We have this whole enormous room all to ourselves, and the other delegates and staff and volunteers of course, and our own escalators! I will never forget how amazing that was.

Number 2 on my list would be meeting all of the other Type 1 kids and parents. Knowing that although we live all over Canada and are all unique and different, and some of us even speak different languages, we were all gathered together, united in our desire to end this disease. I made some new friends, met lots of great people. It was really cool! Below are pictures of some of the people I met:

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Okay, well, there are people I met, but also my mom. Because I'm sure you all want to see her after I gave her a shout-out like that! So she's there, too. Okay, now for the pictures:

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(They told us to give a cheer and put up our arms, so my arm is covering my face because I was trying not to punch the MP next to me in the face. If you're wondering which one I am, I am the first person, all the way to the left, in the first row of people holding up the banner. There's a man in a fancy suit next to me. Also, if you click here, it'll take you to Steve's website. Steve is the awesome photographer who took the pictures that do not have ** directly above them and to the left. The rest do have those little stars, and were taken by Yours Truly or somebody in my family!)


Number 3 on my list is the food. The food was amazing. There was cake and sandwiches and salad and cake a couple hundred more times (I really like cake, if you couldn't tell! 🙂). All in all, the food was delicious.



Number 4 on my list is that I was able to meet with politicians and be a part of something that has the potential to change the future for Type 1 Diabetics living in our beautiful country. I believe that the louder of a voice we have, and the more buzz that's going around, the more awareness we can raise for our condition, and the more support we can get. The more support we have, both in the sense of funding and that more people know about what we have to deal with and are there for us, the better our lives will be. It can only mean good things! We were given voices for a reason, why not use them? Shout out! Make some noise! Advocate for yourself! Again, it can only mean good things. 
Below are pictures from all of my meetings over the course of my stay in Ottawa:

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(Mr. Singh, leader of the NDP party)

 (MP Masse)

 (MP Alghabra)

 (MP Allison)

 (Assistant to Senator Oh)

(MP Sorbara)

I'd like to add that MP Sorbara's favourite super hero is Captain America. We asked him who his favourite super hero is for a scavenger hunt that was running all day Monday as an activity in between meetings. One of the challenges was to ask an MP who their favourite super hero is. If you're reading this, Mr. Sorbara, I wanted to thank you for answering our question! It got us twenty points which contributed to us (us being me and my partner, Rohan) winning third place in the scavenger hunt! So, thanks a million! Speaking of the scavenger hunt, that brings me tot the last item on the list.

Number 5 on my list was, I'm sure you've already guessed it, the scavenger hunt! The scavenger hunt was a wonderful activity for in between meetings. It was well thought out, designed for team-building, and it was really quite fun to complete! Some of the challenges included:

- our super hero question from before

- taking a picture of you/a teammate giving a random act of kindness to a stranger

-dancing in front of a stranger and having them rate you on a scale from 1-10

- doing the mannequin challenge

- take a picture with more than ten people in it

- doing the running man

- doing the plank challenge

- making an educational video about the symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes

- sharing a hidden talent

These challenges and many more were so much fun to complete! They helped Rohan and me to gain confidence and to get to know each other better. Also, I think a certain bond is made when you have to dance in front of strangers, let's be honest.

I'd like to end this post by saying that when we attended Question Period in the House of Commons, we brought everyone to their feet in a standing ovation. We were able to do that because we used our voices, we shared our stories, and we touched the hearts of and became an inspiration to each MP and Senator that we met with. Remember this whenever you feel like life is too hard, or diabetes is too much to handle. Remember this and know that you are an inspiration to everyone around you, and you're doing the best you can. Something I read the other day was that when something bad happens to you, you have three choices: You can let it define you, let it destroy you, or let it give you strength. 

What will you choose to do?

Thanks for reading this post of That Stupid Pancreas!

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Till next time, Type 1 Warrriors!