by pgunalan | Jul 7, 2026 | T1D Stories, Interviews
Scott K. Johnson is a prominent Type 1 diabetes (T1D) advocate, blogger, and speaker diagnosed in 1980 at age five. Known for early work in the online diabetes community and his blog, scottsdiabetes.com, he focuses on the emotional and technology-driven aspects of diabetes management. He has worked extensively with mySugr and now with Blue Circle Health, aiming to empower patients and improve diabetes care. I sat down with Scott recently to talk about staying resilient when faced with the challenges of aging and of T1D in general.
by pgunalan | Jun 26, 2026 | T1D Stories, Interviews
Judith Jones Ambrosini is the oldest person I know with type 1 diabetes, and she’s probably had it longer than anyone I know. When I was beginning to make my mark in diabetes, she was already in the thick of it. She’s been a board member with the American Diabetes Association (ADA), a board member of DESA (Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association), a journalist who wrote for many diabetes magazines, a professional chef and caterer who taught nutrition, she volunteered at Children with Diabetes’ conferences for more than twenty years, and taught Tai Chi at TCOYD (Taking Control of Your Diabetes) conferences in San Diego. When I first met Judith, thirty odd years ago, she blared at me something I’ve never forgotten: “You’re using the poor man’s pump!,” while looking at my syringe trying to convert me. Alas, she never did, but I loved her passion and commitment to helping others. At 83, Judith tells it like it is, then and now, and shares a few wild stories in-between.
by pgunalan | Jun 21, 2026 | Healthy Aging, T1D Stories
More adults are reaching older age with type 1 diabetes (T1D) than ever before, yet research, hospital care, and long-term support systems have not kept pace with their needs. Joanne Milo, diagnosed in 1965, is pushing for change through advocacy, research discussions, and her platform T1D to 100. As the population of older adults living with T1D grows, she argues that the health care system must respond with better data, better training, and better infrastructure.
by pgunalan | Jun 18, 2026 | Healthy Aging, T1D Stories
More adults are reaching older age with type 1 diabetes (T1D) than ever before, yet research, hospital care, and long-term support systems have not kept pace with their needs. Joanne Milo, diagnosed in 1965, is pushing for change through advocacy, research discussions, and her platform T1D to 100. As the population of older adults living with T1D grows, she argues that the health care system must respond with better data, better training, and better infrastructure.
by pgunalan | May 28, 2026 | T1D Stories, Interviews
She saw it coming closer on social media and the TV News, she heard the howling winds, but she couldn’t imagine that it could reach all the way to her house. So many previous fires had stayed in the foothills and not ventured into the neighborhoods of Altadena, CA. But as a T1D of 61 years, Dorothy Noe smelled, and then saw, the approaching danger. Over a period of hours on January 7 and 8, 2025, she and her husband had to take action. When she evacuated her house that dark, early morning, she never imagined that she’d never return.
by pgunalan | Apr 29, 2026 | T1D Stories, Interviews
Brian got type 1 diabetes when he was seven. He long feared one of his three children might face the same fate––until one did. His son Owen got T1D just past his eighth birthday. Brian is a clinical exercise physiologist and diabetes educator by training, cares for his three children, lives with type 1 and Owen’s type 1, and has helped start a branch of a grass roots diabetes meet up in his hometown of Philadelphia, GrownUp T1Ds. What’s it like with all that on your plate? Brian says he takes it one day at a time, with lots of coffee.
