Putting the boots to diabetes

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This article was published 13/03/2016 (3455 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Eric Goulet is not driving around delivering pizzas for a paycheck, he is probably behind the wheel—driving for fun. Cars are his passion.

Brooklyn Gigolyk has crammed a lot into her 18 years. She plays ringette and refs the sport on the side. She has travelled to Quebec the past two summers and has dabbled in soccer and is thinking about entering a triathlon again. “I have two sisters that play ringette so I’m also their chauffeur,” she adds.

You wouldn’t know it based on their hobbies, the active lives they lead, but the two young adults are not as spontaneous as many of their friends are—they live with diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes, which Goulet and Gigolyk are diagnosed with, is an autoimmune disease where a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone the body needs to get energy from food.

Without it, their blood sugar levels fluctuate regularly, which means those living with Type 1 diabetes must constantly balance their insulin against food intake and activity. In simpler terms, if your body is not taking in the energy it needs, “it’s literally like you’re not thinking coherently,” added Gigolyk.

A couple times a day, a finger is pricked to check for blood sugar. There is the threat of a seizure or falling into a coma if one is not careful. The process is endless.

“It doesn’t quit,” said Gigolyk. “You wake up, you check throughout the day, you check before you eat, you check before you exercise, you check after you exercise, after you eat and before you go to bed and when you wake up.”

“And before you drive, too,” added Goulet, a Grade 12 student at Steinbach Regional Secondary School.

It is a pattern that has become easier for Gigolyk, who lives in Kleefeld, and Goulet, a native of Landmark, to adapt to by coming across JDRF, a non-profit dedicated to funding Type 1 diabetes research, that has helped them meet other teenagers encountering the same challenges.

They hope to give back to those who helped them with a fundraiser, Let’s Boot Diabetes, later this month at Neufeld Garage in Randolph. Comedian Matt Falk of Niverville will crack the jokes. Gigolyk will speak, too, as will a representative with JDRF. They’ll flip the stereotype that diabetics cannot have sugar by auctioning off appetizing desserts.

It will be a fun evening to raise awareness for Type 1 diabetes and hopefully help find a cure.

Gigolyk has had this idea for a number of years to raise money for the cause, said her mother Tammy.

Added Brooklyn, who graduated from SRSS last year, “I want to continue the support that I’ve been given and give people the same opportunity that I had.

Unlike Type 2 diabetes, Type 1 is not preventable or reversible and is not related to poor diet or exercise.

Goulet said he has benefitted from meeting others with the same condition. Though Gigolyk has lived with this diagnosis for nearly a decade, it has been a few years for Goulet.

“It helps knowing you’re not alone,” he said.

The two got to know each other through summer camps organized for youth with Type 1 diabetes, and in turn contacts closer to home have been cultivated.

Brooklyn’s mother Tammy recalls hearing from a mother in St Pierre-Jolys a few years back whose child was diagnosed. She came with questions, and through that their support network expanded. It continues to.

“You can get answers from your doctors but sometimes it’s nice to just talk mom to mom,” she said.

Those connections are what helped launch this month’s fundraiser, and it is hoped can make it easier for other young folks with the diagnosis to know they can lead a regular life—they just have to be more mindful.

“We want to show how people can live beyond diabetes,” said Brooklyn Gigolyk.

The event starts Saturday, Mar. 19 at 7 p.m. at Neufeld Garage in Randolph, with doors opening a half-hour earlier. Tickets can be purchased by messaging the “Let’s Boot Diabetes” Facebook page or by contacting Tammy Gigolyk at 204-377-4384 or by email at sundowng@mts.net.