Kate Hall of Casco, who broke a 39-year-old national high school long-jump record last month, is scheduled to testify Wednesday in Washington, D.C., about living with Type 1 diabetes.
Hall was invited by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to speak before the Senate Committee on Aging, which is headed by Collins, according to a news release.
The hearing is being held in conjunction with the 2015 Children’s Congress of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which was expected to draw 160 people to the nation’s capital this week. The committee is investigating how diabetes affects people of all ages and how research can improve their lives.
Hall is scheduled to testify along with 10-year-old Isabelle Levesque of Arundel, who also has Type 1 diabetes and is a delegate to the JDRF’s Children’s Congress.
Considered one of the best athletes ever to come out of Maine, Hall won a second national title on June 21, when she set a new national high school record with a jump of 22 feet, 5 inches at the New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Hall’s jump tied her for ninth place in this year’s world rankings and for third place among U.S. women with Brittney Reese, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and a five-time world champion. It broke the oldest high school field event record – 22 feet, 3 inches, set in 1976 by Kate McMillan of Raeford, North Carolina.
A home-schooled student who will attend Iowa State University in the fall on a full scholarship, Hall has a demanding training regimen that has required her to be diligent in monitoring her diabetes, checking her blood-sugar level five times a day and adjusting her insulin dosage and nutrition accordingly, she has told the Portland Press Herald.
Just over 29 million Americans had diabetes in 2012; among them, 1.25 million children and adults had Type 1 diabetes and 8.1 million were undiagnosed, according to the American Diabetes Association. Type 1 diabetes typically starts in childhood and requires frequent blood monitoring and insulin injections, according to the JDRF. Type 2 diabetes, also known as insulin resistance, develops after age 40 and can be managed with diet, exercise and oral medications, at least initially.
Hall learned that she had diabetes when she was 10 years old, about the time she started to excel in track and inexplicably began to lose weight and energy. Initially misdiagnosed, her condition worsened until her parents rushed her to the emergency room, where tests showed she also had celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that requires a strict gluten-free diet.
Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
Twitter: KelleyBouchard
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