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I have two cousins with juvenile diabetes. They both contracted the disease before the age of 5, and it was so heartbreaking watching them go through daily blood tests and injections. It is such a difficult disease to live with and requires constant attention; a tough thing to explain to a child.

I was having serious issues with becoming a diabetic.

Diabetes is a disease that's had a deep impact on my family. My little brother has had type 1 diabetes since he was a baby and I have spent time learning about the disease and trying to bring attention to it so that one day soon we will reach a cure.

I can't tell you, as a parent, how it feels when the doctor tells you your child has diabetes. First off, you don't really know much about it. Then you discover there is no cure.

I got Type 1 diabetes at 30. It hit me in 1982 when I was a White House Fellow in Washington. I had viral pneumonia. I lost 35 pounds in six weeks. And I couldn't see anything. Everything was blurry. I was always thirsty.

Typically diagnosed during childhood and adolescent years, juvenile diabetes, also referred to as Type I diabetes, currently affects more than 3 million Americans and more then 13,000 children are diagnosed each year.

When I first found out I had diabetes I denied it.

Diabetes affects my family. One of my kids is affected by it.

Diabetes is all about insulin levels and sugar levels and what you put in your body.