Redefining diabetes for philanthropists

Every diabetes story is different, which means that every person that interacts with the Tidepool ecosystem is also different. We were recently contacted by our users and financial supporters who wanted to briefly share their specific Tidepool “Why”, both as a user and as a donor that helps make it possible for us to carry out our mission every day, with us and all of you.

My father was diagnosed in 1931. I was born in 1955 and diagnosed a year and a half later. Two out of three of my younger brothers were diagnosed in the following years. Then my oldest son was diagnosed at 8 months old, and then his oldest daughter (my granddaughter) was diagnosed at 18 months old. So it’s safe to say I have more than a little bit of a connection to diabetes. My oldest son has a newborn and everyday we pray for her pancreas to keep working.

I do not believe ignorance is bliss when it comes to access to diabetes data. Ignorance is dangerous when you have diabetes. Tidepool was the first tool that didn’t care which device you were using, and that is a good thing I want to support. The fact that Tidepool gives people a choice and that the next generation of Loop is going to be done with state of the art software, as an engineer by trade, that is important to me.

Even pre-technology, I have never let diabetes hold me back. I have hiked the John Muir trail, played water polo 6 days a week and gone scuba diving to name a few. But I like having the data. Before the notion of time in range, my goal was to stay below 180 and my A1c used to be in the 8-9’s most of my life. I don’t function very well under 90 mg/dL, so it has taken me the last few years to get comfortable with bringing my goal down to 100 mg/dL and 80% time in range. And the data helps me do that.

I choose to financially support Tidepool because you’re working on making life easier for diabetes now. I have participated in so many trials over the years, my first one was in 1984 for a CGM when I was in college, and so many of those didn’t make it. After living with diabetes for so long, as much as I care about the search for biological cures, solutions that help me and my loved ones now are so important to me. I really believe in the work you all are doing at Tidepool—it’s made such an impact on me and my family.

Thank you. Thank you to every single person that has contributed to this mission, whether that was through an anonymous donation, by signing up to be a Tidepool Changemaker, or any of the many ways you can give to Tidepool. Thank you to all of our donors for leaving behind a legacy of diabetes innovation and for being a part of our story.

Did you know that thousands of companies match donations made by their employees to organizations like Tidepool? Please visit our corporate matching gift page to see if your company will match your gift. If they do, we’ve provided the necessary forms, guidelines, and instructions that you will need to submit to your employer.

As a nonprofit organization, we are able to focus on this larger impact on the diabetes community instead of on returns; but we need your help. We invite you to join us along the pathway we’re building to make an interoperable automated insulin dosing system a reality and drive change across all levels of the diabetes industry.

We can Redefine Diabetes together when you support Tidepool with a donation at tidepool.org/donate.