This weeks Fan of the Week (FOTW) is Pam Machefsky, and we asked Ms. Machefsky to answer a few questions as to learn a little more about her.
BHS: Please tell us your connection with diabetes?
PM: While no one in my immediate family has diabetes, I have had friends (as close as family) with both Type 1 and Type 2. About 24 years ago, I watched "Uncle Harold" lose both his feet to poor circulation before he died.
Then, in 1997, a family moved next door to us and their daughter Liz, around our daughter's age twelve, was diagnosed with Type 1 when she was three. Her mother is a physician, and she told me that when her daughter first got sick, she recognized it was "that damn diabetes" and vowed to see her daughter live a normal life. Liz wore an insulin pump starting at age eleven, but she told curious school mates that it was a beeper because she didn't want to seem 'different.' Liz is a brilliant young woman who studied at Einstein College of Medicine and is getting married, and I'll be at that wedding!
Lastly, I was a nursery school teacher/director for thirty five years, and in 2009 I reconnected with a former Mom on Facebook, also named Pam. I was stunned to learn that her talented daughter whom I taught was diagnosed with Type 1 at age sixteen, and she is now a college sophomore. Pam is a true advocate for the cure for diabetes and she has provided much info and many links for me. She is the reason I found Blue Heel Society, and I thank her. Pam’s son Keith, a PhD student at Stanford, is Bike Riding for the Cure this spring and I'm a proud sponsor!
BHS: What general geographic location do you reside?
PM: We moved to Israel in January 2010, after taking early retirement. Our only child and her family (two little grandsons!) are here, right around the corner from us. We maintain a condo in the States and come back once a year--there's always a wedding to attend! I love being my 20-month old grandson's "nanny" while my daughter and her husband work, and often my spare time is spent on-line learning about ways I can support the cure for diabetes.
BHS: What blue shoe (Heel, sneaker, riding shoe, etc.) suits you & Why?
PM: I'm embarrassed to say that I own only a pair of navy blue low heels right now. But, because I'm a Memphis girl, I would love to own a pair of "blue suede shoes"--just to mention Elvis! I did buy my grandson blue Papush baby-walker shoes in honor of Blue Heel Society. Too cute!
BHS: What does advocacy mean to you?
PM: Advocacy starts with educating yourself first, so you can be informed and able to educate others. When I was growing up in Memphis, in the Baby-Boom suburbs in 1957, a family down the street had a daughter with diabetes. When the girl who lived next door to them was diagnosed with diabetes, there was almost a panic among the other parents. "You can catch diabetes! This proves it! Don't let your children play with these girls!" My parents knew better--my mother told the hysterical mothers to calm down, that diabetes was not an infectious disease. In her own way, my mother showed me what it means to be an advocate--to get the truth to people.
BHS: Please share with us your Blog/Website/Twitter/Organization:
PM: I follow Blue Heel Society, Diabetic Barbie, and Dr. Jennifer Dyer's EndoGoddess. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is an important site (and we always support the Walk for the Cure), as is the ADA’s Diabetes Forecast Magazine. No Tweets. My own blogs are about parent education in the early childhood field.
BHS: Words of wisdom/encouraging statement/general statement about diabetes
PM: I have seen so many changes in the approach to, and the treatment of diabetes in the past 50 years (hindsight is a bonus of living to 60!) that I am extremely encouraged about researchers finding a cure in the near future. I hope that God will give me another 5-10 years to see the end of diabetes in my lifetime. Now that I know more about this cruel disease, my admiration for families living with diabetes is boundless!
Congrats again to Ms.Machefsky, and the BHS Team thanks each & every one of YOU for being a part of our Family.
