CIM was highlighted in The Ottawa Citizen, May 30th after our involvement in The National Capital Race Weekend in Ottawa! Read the article!

‘These athletes refuse to let diabetes stop them’

By Claire Brownell, The Ottawa Citizen May 30, 2

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OTTAWA- Chloe Steepe brought a lot more than shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers when she ran the half-marathon at Ottawa Race Weekend on Sunday.

“There are two pouches, because I couldn’t fit it all in today,” she says, showing off her supplies.

In addition to the blood sugar test kit, jelly beans and glucose tablets in the pouches, Steepe runs with an IV pump inserted above her hip that delivers a steady supply of insulin.

As if running a half-marathon weren’t enough of a challenge, Steepe has to do everything she can to keep her blood sugar from dropping during the race — and make sure she’s prepared in case it does.

Figuring out how to balance diabetes management with training can be overwhelming for athletes.

That’s why Steepe founded Connected in Motion, an outdoor activity group for young adults with Type 1 diabetes.

Steepe, who was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 18, founded the group a year-and-a-half ago after discovering a similar group at a cycling race in Australia.

“That was the first time in my life I’d ever had a chance to meet anybody else, to be surrounded by people who are testing their blood sugar, who wore insulin pumps, who are beeping and buzzing and having to deal with the things I dealt with every day thinking I was the only one,” she says.

With a background in outdoor education and 10 years of experience balancing diabetes management with intense athletic training, Steepe realized she could start a similar group in this hemisphere.

“I just realized wow, there’s such an opportunity here,” she says. “It’s been really incredible how quickly it’s grown and how apparent it is that there is a need for what we’re doing.”

Steepe rented a camp in Haliburton for a weekend in January 2009 and invited young Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetics to come to Connected in Motion’s first event.

Twenty-five people attended and news of the group spread by word of mouth, Steepe says.

A year-and-a-half later, people come from coast to coast to participate in Connected in Motion outdoor activities.

Steepe lives in Toronto, but she’s organizing events this summer as far away as Alberta and British Columbia.

Chris Jarvis, another Type 1 diabetic who was part of Canada’s rowing team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, helps Steepe run the group.

His goal is to show young diabetics how much they can accomplish instead of focusing on their limitations, he says.

“Unfortunately, some of the big charities with diabetes plug a lot of the complications and the really negative sides of things and it can be really disheartening for people. So I think it’s really important to shine a positive light on what we can do.”

Jaime Molyneux, a university administrator from Philadelphia who ran the Ottawa Marathon, met Jarvis at a race in the United States last year.

She accepted his invitation to a winter camp weekend in January and says she was amazed to see other diabetics skiing and tobogganing in sub-zero temperatures — activities she would have avoided for fear of freezing or breaking her insulin pump.

“It’s taught me that it’s worth taking the time to just do it so you can have a more full life experience, and not limit yourself because it’s too much work,” Molyneux says.

“That’s why I fly to Canada to do things, because for me it’s just so worth it to have people who are so like-minded.”

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