JDRF Announces Celebrity Advocates and Town Hall Panelists for 2015 Children's Congress

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Jun 24, 2015, 01:29 ET

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leading figures from the entertainment, television, and professional sports arenas will join more than 160 Delegates, ranging in age from 4 to 17, from across the United States and abroad for JDRF 2015 Children's Congress. The event will be held from July 13 – 15, 2015 in Washington, D.C. While on Capitol Hill the Delegates will advocate for urgent action to ensure funding for medical research and access to improved therapies for type 1 diabetes (T1D) – a disease that affects all the young Delegates and the celebrity role models in attendance at the event.

The list of celebrities includes an impressive roster comprised of Austin Basis, star of CW's award-winning drama, "Beauty and the Beast," Sean Busby, professional snowboarder and founder of Riding On Insulin, Brandon Denson, pro football player and active T1D advocate, Este Haim, musician and singer in the Grammy-nominated band Haim, Becky Furuta, elite cyclist and current member of Team Novo Nordisk, Nicole Johnson, former 1999 Miss America and member of the JDRF International Board of Directors, Adam Lasher, singer, songwriter, and guitarist who appeared on the 2015 season of American Idol, Carling Nolan, retired professional golfer and host for Golf Programming on Fox Sports, and Adam Schefter, sports writer and NFL analyst for ESPN.

Joining the celebrities at the event will be JDRF's President & CEO, Derek Rapp, JDRF's Chief Scientific Officer, Richard Insel, M.D., and JDRF's Chief Mission Officer & Vice President of Research, Aaron Kowalski, Ph.D. As part of the schedule, a town hall forum will be held on Tuesday, July 14. This is an opportunity for the Delegates to interact with these diverse professionals, as they share their experiences of managing the disease while pursuing their professional dreams.

"We are so excited to welcome the celebrity advocates who will join us at JDRF's Children's Congress in Washington, D.C. in July," said Aaron Kowalski, JDRF's Chief Mission Officer & Vice President of Research. "Through their daily lives as leaders in their professions, they show us every day that despite the many challenges of living with type 1 diabetes, one can achieve one's dreams, and together through advocacy we can create a world without type 1 diabetes."

JDRF Children's Congress, one of the most powerful advocacy events on Capitol Hill, has been held every other year since 1999 and has become the largest media and grassroots advocacy event held in support of finding better treatments and a cure for type 1 diabetes. The Delegates will talk about the personal impact T1D has made on their lives, and also upon the lives of their family members and loved ones. This event is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the Delegates, who will visit with national lawmakers and administration officials to raise awareness about T1D and participate in personal advocacy at the highest levels of the U.S. Federal Government.

Delegates will thank Congress for its renewal of the Special Diabetes Program, which accounts for one-third of all federal research for type 1 diabetes, and advocate for Medicare access to life-changing diabetes technologies.

About Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that strikes children and adults suddenly, and can be fatal. Until a cure is found, people with type 1 diabetes have to test their blood sugar and give themselves insulin injections multiple times or use a pump – each day, every day of their lives. And even with that intensive care, insulin is not a cure for diabetes, nor does it prevent its potential complications, which may include kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke, and amputation. Type 1 diabetes accounts for $14 billion in health care costs in the United States each year.

About JDRF
JDRF is the leading global organization focused on type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. JDRF's goal is to progressively remove the impact of T1D from people's lives until we achieve a world without T1D. JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners and is the only organization with the scientific resources, policy influence and a working plan to bring life-changing therapies from the lab to the community. As the largest charitable supporter of T1D research, JDRF has invested nearly $2 billion in research over the past 45 years and is sponsoring scientific research in 17 countries worldwide. For more information, please visit jdrf.org.

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SOURCE JDRF