When Loretta Marie Borrows, a student at Bergen Community College, went to a Global Health Awareness Day at the student center four years ago, she approached the organizers with an idea: Why not focus on diabetes, a disease affecting more than 25 million people in the United States, herself included? The Bergenfield resident knew it would be a great way to bring this debilitating illness into the spotlight.

"I feel in some ways like it's an invisible disease," Borrows says. "And because of all that I've gone through, I wanted to make people aware and educated."

That same year, drawing on Bergen County physicians, diabetic patients and leaders in the pharmaceutical industry, BCC created its inaugural Diabetes Awareness Day.

DIABETES FACTS
With a quarter of a million people in the United States living with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 800,000 in New Jersey alone, few in the area are untouched in some way by the disease.

Diabetes is a chronic illness that impairs the body's ability to produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other foods into energy needed for daily life. Type 1 diabetes, with which Loretta was diagnosed at age 7, occurs most frequently in children and young adults, although it can occur at any age. Type 2 is more common and accounts for about 90 percent of all diabetes cases. It mostly affects adults but has begun developing in children. Complications from diabetes include heart disease and stroke, hypertension, eye problems, kidney disease and lower-limb amputations.

"Many people underestimate the effects of diabetes," Dr. Barbara Davis, a professor in the department of biology and horticulture at BCC and a Diabetes Awareness Day coordinator, says. "And that's a mistake. The numbers are staggering; people need to be aware of the warning signs and how to take care of themselves."

MANNKIND
Just about a mile up the road from BCC is MannKind Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development of therapeutic products for patients with diabetes. MannKind's corporate headquarters are in Valencia, Calif., but its clinical research and development groups are based in Paramus.

Jim Weissman, vice president of business development at Mannkind, was asked to participate in last fall's Diabetes Awareness Day to speak on the drug development process and how MannKind approaches it.

"There is no 'quick fix' for a health issue like diabetes," he says. "It's a multi-faceted problem that requires careful administration, and the organizers of this event realize that. They are bringing together patients, families, physicians, nurses and corporate employees all striving to improve the lives of diabetes patients."

MannKind has an experimental product in the last stage of clinical testing for adults with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Afrezza, still awaiting FDA approval, is a rapid-acting mealtime insulin therapy for the control of hyperglycemia.

"To actually see this product realized," Weissman says, "is to fulfill the hope of numerous colleagues, investigators and patients for a new alternative to treat diabetes by lowering glucose with a reduced risk of hypoglycemia , which is considered to be a major problem for insulin users."
Of the more than 80 employees at MannKind in Bergen, many have a personal connection to diabetes.

"We have people in our company who are either diabetes physicians, have close family members with diabetes or are diabetics themselves," Weissman says. In a country with so many diabetics, it's hard to find anybody who hasn't been affected by the disease, he adds. So this work is personal to them. "In general, the pharmaceutical industry has taken some hard knocks. But for the most part, people who work in this industry are really aiming toward doing something good, something that makes a difference in people's lives."

AWARENESS
Hillsdale resident and BCC professor Tom Betsy's son Thomas Betsy Jr. was diagnosed with Type 1 at the age of 4. One of Diabetes Awareness Day's organizers, Dr. Betsy says a key to helping his son, now 10, deal with the disease is to keep life as normal as possible.

"We try not to treat it like a disease," Betsy says. "Thomas knows he has to take care of himself or he will get headaches or leg pain, but he also knows there is more to him than his illness. We like to tell people, 'He's a great soccer player, a fantastic baseball player. Oh and by the way, he has diabetes too.' That's how we treat it."
Betsy remembers last year's panel discussion where participants, which included Thomas, his mother, Shelley, and Loretta Borrows, took questions from the audience.
"Someone asked Thomas if he was on an insulin pump," Betsy says. "With that, he jumped up on the table, lifted up his shirt and showed everyone."

For BCC students, the purpose of the event is for them not to be overloaded with a lot of data. "We want to give them information they can personally use," Davis, one of the coordinators, says. And students are a major part of the day, putting together informational posters on every aspect of diabetes. "Service learning, where students take what they've learned in the classroom and go into the community and give back, is very important to their education."

Borrows' message to the young college community is this: Don't do what I did.

"My parents were wonderful," she says. "They took care of me with diabetes when I was young, but when I went away to college, I didn't take care of myself." But by the age of 18, her kidneys were failing and she was put on dialysis. For the past 10 years she has been on the transplant list for a kidney and pancreas. "I want young people to know that the choices they make now will have an impact on their future."

As a result, after she graduates this spring from BCC with an associate degree, she plans on going to Ramapo College for a bachelor's degree in psychology before getting a Ph.D. so she can counsel young people with illnesses.

"I think my whole outlook on my disease would have been different if I had had someone to talk to when I was young," she says, "someone who was going through what I was going through, who told me how important it was to eat right and take care of myself. That's what I want to do for others." At age 28, Borrows is on the 10-year plan, but she's certain she'll get there. "I have a lot to deal with on a daily basis, but no matter how long it takes, I plan on getting it done and taking good care of myself along the way."

WHERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DIABETES IN BERGEN AND BEYOND

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Northern New Jersey and Rockland County Chapter
Committed to helping families and individuals dealing with Type 1 diabetes. Helps those recently diagnosed through its family mentor program. Thousands join the Fall Walk to Cure Diabetes fund-raiser.   jdrf.org/northernnj, (201) 568-4838

Diabetes Foundation
Paramus
Offers programs and services including education, diabetic children's camp, scholarships, and indigent assistance with medications and supplies in an effort to improve the quality of life for people with diabetes.   diabetesinnj.org, (800) 633-3160

American Diabetes Association
New Jersey Chapter in Bridgewater
Information on the latest research as well as cycling events and walks to raise funds and awareness.   diabetes.org, (732) 469-7979