Kay’s Krew at the JDRF Walk. Bruce Rychwalski is standing in the back row wearing white hat. Kaydence Wade is standing behind the other children and wearing a blue hat.
On Saturday, June 15, Gates senior runner Bruce Rychwalski, 69, walked in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Rochester Chapter Walk-to-Cure on the R.I.T. campus. The annual JDRF Walk is the area’s largest fundraiser in which the money raised goes towards research for a cure for type 1 diabetes.
The walk had one goal: to create a world without type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and is also known as juvenile diabetes.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is the leading global funder of type 1 diabetes research. Its mission is to improve the lives of all people affected by type 1 diabetes by accelerating breakthroughs on the most promising opportunities for care, better treatment and prevention of type 1 diabetes.
Rychwalski walked as a member of Kaydence Wade’s team, Kay’s Krew. Eight-year-old Kaydence was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at eight months old. She is insulin dependent and uses an insulin pump, as well as a continuous glucose monitor sensor.
Kaydence began playing soccer at the age of three, as well as dancing and running. Every Fourth of July Kaydence runs with her brothers in the Town of Greece Scooby Stars and Stripes Kids Fun Run.
Rychwalski is motivated by the courage and perseverance Kaydence displays in facing the everyday challenges of type 1 diabetes. He marvels at her will and tenacity to lead a normal and active life and her ability to thrive while facing an incurable disease.
Rychwalski, a heart disease survivor, considers Kaydence to be a kindred spirit. She has an implantable insulin pump and he has an implantable cardiac resynchronization therapy device (three lead pacemaker) with an internal defibrillator.
Since being diagnosed in 2011 with the genetic heart muscle disease, Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy, Rychwalski has run in 335 5K races.
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