Article by Larry Checco - 
published by the 
National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases 






PATIENT PROFILE - Mollie Singer

It happened the day before then 10 year-old Mollie Singer was to testify before Congress on behalf of the 1999 Children’s Congress of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. Mollie was a guest in the Senate gallery absorbing the legislative process. She was seated next to her mother and a senator’s wife when her mother happened to clasp Mollie’s hand and felt it cold and clammy to the touch.

"I took one look at Mollie, tested her right there in the gallery and realized she was going into a low blood sugar emergency," says Mrs. Singer. "I literally had to pick her up, rush her out into the hallway and immediately give her glucose to raise her blood sugar." All this, while the sympathetic senator’s wife looked on with great concern.

Had Mrs. Singer not acted as she did, Mollie, who was already beginning to feel groggy and disoriented due to the sudden drop in her blood sugar, ran the very real risk of passing out, going into convulsions, and slipping into a diabetic coma. The very next day, Mollie testified before Congress, asking representatives to "promise to remember me" when they provide resources for biomedical research.

This is the story of a very courageous little girl and her equally courageous family who battle with type 1 diabetes every minute of their lives. The family lives in constant fear, walking a tightrope between the potentially deadly complications that can steal vision, limbs, and years of productive life from their loved one on the one hand, and the immediate danger of swings in blood sugar levels on the other. And they are doing everything in their power to help each \other, and the 17 million other Americans with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, live better, fuller, and more hopeful lives.

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“My DREAM is that the doctors find the cure for diabetes,” says 13 year-old Mollie Singer, who wrote this at age 11, six and one-half years after she was diagnosed with type I diabetes.  “When that happens…I’ll be so happy, I’ll cry!!…NO MORE SHOTS!…I would like to know what it feels like not to have this horrible disease and just be a regular kid.”
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"Diabetes is something I have to live with," says Mollie, now 13 years old. "And," she adds in her upbeat, giggly adolescent voice that belies the strength and dedication behind it, "I’m going to do everything I need to do to stay alive and live a good life until they find a cure for me and other children with this disease." The fact is, she and her fraternal twin sister, Jackie, are true profiles in courage, commitment, and love when it comes to fighting the good fight against diabetes.

"I hate that my sister has this disease," says Jackie, who does not have diabetes. Nor is there a history of the disease in the adopted twins’ biological family.

"It’s hard to watch Mollie go through all the pain.

I don’t sleep nights because I’m afraid that something will happen to her." Jackie’s fears are not unfounded. Over the past several years, Jackie has had to rouse her parents in the middle of the night on several occasions when she realized that Mollie’s blood sugar had dropped to dangerously low levels.

While mother and father tended to Mollie’s urgent health needs, Jackie called 911. When paramedics arrived at the door, Jackie described to them what her twin sister was going through. "Jackie is my guardian angel," says Mollie, with deep affection.

"She’s always watching over me. She’s totally cool. "S-o-o-o cool, that when the twins were in fourth grade they started a club they called Mollie’s and Jackie’s Diabetic Angels to educate other kids about diabetes, and to get them to become guardian angels for Mollie and others with the disease. In class, for example, if the teacher forgot, the kids would yell, "It’s time for Mollie to test her blood sugar." The 40 or so classmates who joined the club also wrote to their congressional representatives in support of research dollars to find a cure for diabetes. Never ones to miss out on an opportunity to educate others about diabetes, Mollie and Jackie wrote up a plan and mission statement for their club and used the Internet to promote it. Today, according to Mrs. Singer, who gave up her profession as a film production consultant after Mollie was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1993, there are more than 20 Diabetic Angels clubs around the country, as well as in Australia and Israel.

"My twin sister Jackie wonders how many more birthdays we will celebrate, before someone finds the cure [for diabetes]," says Mollie. "It makes me so sad that Jackie can’t be a regular kid either, because she is always worrying about me."  The rules and mission statement Mollie and Jackie established for their club speak volumes about their love and dedication to one another, and their commitment to seeking a cure for diabetes for others. The original club rules read as follows:
• Know what it means when Mollie says her blood sugar is high or low and also know what to do to help her.

• You have to know how to test her in case she’s having trouble testing herself and I’m (Jackie) not around.

• You have to agree to write a short letter to our representatives when it’s necessary and ask them to please give more money

• Help raise funds for research by walking...in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s "Walk to Cure Diabetes" if your parents say it’s O.K.

• And the last rule is, represent the Diabetic Angels with honor. This means accepting the differences in all people and be a kind and understanding person.

Starting the club was just the first salvo in the twins’ never-ending war against diabetes. To raise awareness about the disease and its deadly complications, these two adolescent dynamos have met with President George W. Bush and appeared on TV’s Good Morning America, and they routinely take part in the annual Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s "Walk to Cure Diabetes," appear in documentaries, do interviews, stay current on research and political issues related to diabetes—writing letters to Members of Congress whenever they feel it’s necessary—and more. "At night, Jackie and I pray for everyone who is sick," says Mollie, "and we ask God to help the doctors find the cure for diabetes and other terrible diseases.

Mollie’s and Jackie’s activism is a direct result of the lack of understanding and insensitivity Mollie encountered shortly after she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes - sometimes referred to as juvenile diabetes - at age four. When the twins were five, Mollie was in the hospital for open-heart surgery, which was unrelated to her diabetes. "I had a real bad time," Mollie recalls. "No one knew how to handle a child with diabetes, so I got the wrong amount of insulin and the wrong food."

In school, she’s been embarrassed when her high blood sugar has made her vision blurry, making it hard for her to read, and people have told her point blank that "diabetic kids are a hassle."

If the misunderstandings and insensitivities aren’t enough, consider the fact that, from the time she was diagnosed until the day she received an insulin pump in January 2000, Mollie had been injected with 12,889 shots of insulin and had her little fingers poked more than 25,000 times in order to take her blood sugar readings. 

"Everything I do is planned around my diabetes," says Mollie, including eating, sleeping, playing, and even homework. "If things are not planned exactly, my blood sugar levels can go out of control." Just ask her parents. "In the past, when we would go to restaurants," says Mollie’s father, Dr. Singer, an anesthesiologist, "I’d always worry about how long it would take for us to get our food. Sometimes I’d see Mollie crashing right in front of me." Mrs. Singer quickly adds that ladies’ rooms, airplanes and cars are horrible places to give insulin shots.

For years after she was first diagnosed, the only item on Mollie’s Christmas gift wish list was a cure for diabetes. "Finding a cure for diabetes is all I think about every hour of every day," says Mollie. "I try to be brave but sometimes I get very sad and cry myself to sleep. "All that has been mitigated somewhat since Mollie began using an insulin pump nearly 3 years ago.

Proper use of the device takes a relatively high degree of awareness and responsibility, including the ability to count carbohydrate intake. However, the pump has changed Mollie’s life.

She no longer needs to take insulin shots four to six times a day, nor carry around the syringes, alcohol pads and other supplies necessary for injections. She’s also able to eat foods she wasn’t able to eat before.

In short, although she still needs to test her blood sugar levels regularly, the pump has introduced lots of freedom into Mollie’s and her family’s lives. "My pump looks like a beeper, it’s so cool," says Mollie. To make it even cooler, Jackie, of course, adorns Mollie’s pump cases using silver pens, colorful materials and little patches. "The pump makes having the disease a little less painful for Mollie," says the ever loyal Jackie.

NIDDK supported clinical research studies have demonstrated that controlling blood sugar levels for even a few years can significantly mitigate the complications of diabetes _ including nerve, eye, and kidney disease _ later in life. The recent development of the insulin pump, also with NIDDK support, has made it easier for insulin dependent diabetics to manage their blood sugar levels throughout the day, thus reducing the risk for developing complications.

Always in the vanguard, Mollie and Jackie are eagerly awaiting the day Mollie can use an implantable insulin pump, which is still in clinical trials. They are also excited about the many scientific advances being made in diabetes research, including promising studies of islet transplantation, better ways to monitor blood sugar levels at home, medicines that can prevent or delay complications in people with diabetes, and more.

"Every night, night after night, I have the same routine," says Mollie. "I pray for the cure and dream about what that day will be like. The cure is all I dream about, because my future depends on whether or not my dream comes true.
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      Mollie’s and Jackie’s Diabetic Angel’s Mission Statement 
The goal of a "Diabetic Angel" is to support his or her diabetic friend...be prepared to help in an emergency...bring about awareness by educating classmates, friends, and parents...and help raise funds for diabetes research until diabetes is cured!
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