Duffy's Drive Fore Diabetes

A friend of ours, Reidar Jensen, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Reidar hopes to raise money to help others that share his diagnosis by playing golf and selling custom golf apparel and equipment labeled with his charity's logo, "Duffy's Drive Fore Diabetes". Reidar talked with us about his plan during a round of golf one day, and about his difficulties finding sponsorships. We thought it might be a good idea to start one of these. Any donations received will be used for purchasing custom golf supplies with the charity logo, and for the fees and expenses for starting up his charity, also to help pay for Reidar's expenses while he travels the country raising money for type 1 diabetes. Below, in his own words is Reidar's story.



My name is Reidar Jensen, I'm 26 years old, in March of 2013 i was first diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (23 years of age at the time, which is rare to occur that late in life). Over the past 2 years my diagnoses has been uncontrolled and have experienced the most serious side effects of not controlling and taking care of your health while having type 1 (DKA, seizures, and worst of all in March 2015 Diabetic Neuropathy). Type 1 diabetes is a serious auto-immune disease that affects the youth in our society at a expontial growth rate. The complications to go along with the disease are far more drastic and harsh then what general society believes. DKA, is a result of having high glucose for a period of time. In my case it included, dry heaving for a 14 hour period straight until my parents had no choice to bring me into the ER (November 2014). I had previously broke my back in three places and i will be the first to tell you that DKA is the worst pain you can ever experienced in your life. What happens during this is that your body becomes so dehydrated that it becomes unbearable. Once admitted to the ER it took more then an hour to be able to get an IV in me to start replenshing the essential nutrients and fluids your body requires. After four days in the ICU i was cleared to go home. Upon returning home i was hopeful the worst part was over. I was wrong. In the next two months I experienced three seperate siezures. The first experience of a siezure the most horrific thing one will experience. Unfortunately that feeling doesn't get better over time and more seizures. I was lucky enough to survive them all even though I was alone during all episodes. Then in March 2015 I was diagnoesed with Diabetic Nueropathy, this is where having uncontrolled glucose levels for an extended period of time starts to effect your nervous system. Throughout this episode I would experience the loss of feeling in my hands and feet periodically throughtout the day. To me this was the most alarming and hard to deal with side effect of DKA. For those of you that are still with me this is where the fundraising idea came to me. I have been playing golf since i could walk. My father taught me the game and his father was the one that instilled the values of golf and the things that we as humans have the obligation to fullfill. With that being said I have decided to use the time that i have to use my god given ability to hit a golf ball, to raise awareness of type 1 and raise funds to provide a teen in each 50 states with type 1, an insulin pump that will change the way they live for the rest of their life. While my body is still able to do so. With all the complications i have encountered, my sight and hand eye coordination isnt a garauntee to be with me for the extended future. I spent countless hours to map out the best route to use and the tournaments to play in over a 10 month period. This will Start in Novemember 2015 (National Diabetes Awareness Month) and will finish the first week of September. The tenative plan is to play in 50 professional golf tournaments over 25000 miles, in 300 days. This will all occur under the "Duffy's Drive Fore Diabetes" charity. Duffy is a scottish terrier who is my headcover, and the mascot for the charity drive, i will use throughout the tour. Replicas will be availible for purchase with 100% proceeds going back to Duffy's charity. I want to thank all my friends and family that have made this possible and have pushed me to test my limits both physically and mentally over the last four months. Even if the outcome of this drive raises enough funds for just one child's insulin pump it will be a success. There is no price you can put on a life, especially that of one of our youth. To be one to experience first hand the worst side efffects from the 7th leading cause of death in the United States, I Dont want a single child to experience that pain. I appreciate anybody that has stayed with me throughout this message. More information regaurding the websites for donations, contact info, volunteer forms, etc will be availible in the coming weeks.

Thank you for your time and Im excited to start making some strides in combatting this horrible disease

Sincerely,
Reidar Paul Jensen