Dozens and dozens have walked with Jack Stuart as part of  Team Jack of Hearts. Join us this Sunday and help find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

Thanks to everyone who walked with Jack, pledged him and helped spread the word, Team Jack of Hearts won the Top Family Fundraising Team award in 2010.

Let’s do that again this year! Walk with Jack!

By Jennifer Saltman, The Province, photo by Wayne Leidenfrost, PNG

Craig Stuart walked with thousands of other people in the Lower Mainland Sunday to raise money to cure a disease that strikes 70,000 children worldwide each year — including his son.

The 2010 Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes, a fundraising event for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, was held in Aldergrove and Vancouver.

Stuart’s 10-year-old son Jack was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes five years ago. In people with Type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks and destroys insulin cells. Those affected must rely on pumped or injected insulin.

Stuart and his family started Team Jack of Hearts to raise awareness and money to help find a cure. The team, which participates in the Vancouver walk, now has 120 members and has raised about $50,000 in four years.

Read the whole story here.

The countdown is on. The Walk to Cure Diabetes takes place this Sunday at 11am at Nat Bailey Stadium.

Jack’s team is growing and with your help he will reach his goal of raising $20,000 for the JDRF. Have you joined Team Jack of Hearts yet?

New location in Vancouver! The Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes starts at Nat Bailey Stadium and continues through picturesque Queen Elizabeth Park .

Questions about the walk? Contact Chris Lowe at 604-320-1937 or walkbc@jdrf.ca

Can’t join us for the walk but want to support Jack? Pledge him!

This year’s Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes video has been unveiled. Guess who’s got a cameo.

Team Jack of Hearts achieved the 2009 Top Family Fundraising Team Award in Vancouver. And it’s all thanks to the tireless efforts of each team member who collected pledges, spread the word and walked proudly in Jack’s red t-shirts.

Let’s beat Jack’s goal and raise more than $20,000 this year.

Walk with Team Jack of Hearts and get all your friends to pledge Jack!

When Jack first walked in the TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes, he raised $250. After the walk, Jack turned to his dad and said “Dad, we should get more people to come and walk with us”. And with that, Team Jack of Hearts was born.

In 2009, Jack’s teammates raised more than $15,000 and earned the Top Family Fundraising Team Award. And this year, they plan to beat that.

With your help, Team Jack of Hearts will raise $20,000 this year. Walk with Jack!

Jack (pictured above with his pediatrician Dr. Sue Stock) was profiled in Well, the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation’s magazine. Below is an excerpt of the story, written by Helena Bryan.

Eight-year-old Jack Stuart likes hockey, baseball and soccer – “in that order” he’ll tell you. He also likes sleepovers, candy and watching the Canucks. In nearly every respect Jack is like any other boy his age, except for the four daily injections that keep him alive, the hand-held glucometer he carries so he can check his blood sugar levels and the tiny calluses on his fingertips from routine finger pricks.

Read the whole story…

Hello everyone! My name is Jack Stuart and I am this year’s Youth Ambassador for the TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes. I am very happy to be here today, with my friend Lucia. Lucia’s dad is Stephen Plunkett. Both Lucia and her Dad walked with my team “Jack of Hearts” last year. I am 8 years old and I was diagnosed when I was 5.

I was in Scottsdale Arizona, with my friend Maggie when I got Diabetes. I knew something was wrong when I:

- Was drinking lots of water
- Going to the bathroom a lot
- Losing weight, but very hungry
- And always tired

We went to the hospital and all I heard was the word “NEEDLES”.

I want to tell you about a normal day for me:

As soon as I wake up, I take my blood sugars. This tells my parents how much insulin I need in my first shot, to start the day. I also need insulin to control my sugars when I am at school. I take my blood sugar at lunch and if it is wild and crazy, the school freaks out and calls my mom and then my mom freaks out and comes to give me a shot. Before dinner, I take another blood sugar reading, and another shot , and then the same thing at bedtime.

Now that’s all good right up until I play:

Hockey, or soccer, or baseball, or ski, or play tag or go to a birthday party, everything I do affects my blood sugars! The good thing is that I have friends like Lucia who help me remember that I shouldn’t have that cupcake at her birthday party.

You may say, well what’s a needle here or there:

But you have to remember that kids my age don’t like 3 things:

1. Spinach
2. Homework
3. And wait for it… Needles!

Children with Type 1 Diabetes don’t produce insulin because their pancreas stops working. So now I have several (needles) per day… every day for the rest of my life. My hope is that someday scientists will find a cure for diabetes! I know that everyone here at Boston Pizza is trying to help raise money to help those scientist find a cure for us! The first year my family and I walked and we made $250. The second year 5 of us raised $350. Last year, my team “Jack of Hearts” had 82 walkers and raised $12,000. See what you can do when you put your ‘heart’ into it! The Walk is important for finding a cure, so please, get your pledges in and walk!

Let me say thank you from me, and from all the other kids who go through what I go through.

We thank you for making a difference.

Want to beat diabetes? Walk with Jack!