Jeff’s lifelong purpose was to find a cure for juvenile (type 1) diabetes, a disease that afflicted Jeff since early childhood. He established a medical research trust to find the cure and funded the trust with nearly 100% of his earnings.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease that occurs when a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, the hormone that controls blood-sugar levels. Type 1 diabetes (sometimes known as juvenile diabetes) affects children and adults, though people can be diagnosed at any age. Often T1D comes on during early childhood or infancy and must be managed with the use of multiple injections of insulins per day and constant blood sugar tests.
Type 1 diabetes is a 24/7 life-threatening disease that requires constant attention and management. People with T1D continuously and carefully balance insulin intake with eating, exercise and other activities, and are commonly subjected to blindness, coma and kidney disease caused by their diabetes.. They also must frequently measure blood-sugar levels through invasive finger stabs, ideally at least eight times a day, and will lose consciousness if their levels go too low. When their blood sugars go too high, Type 1 diabetics risk another life-threatening condition which often leads to hospitalization and sometimes coma and death.