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FeedBorn to Volunteer
Madison Dodge never let diabetes or a rare gastrointestinal disorder stop her from doing anything. The thing she wants to do most? Help others.
by Pamela Crowe Published April 9, 2010 at 09:58 AM
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Madison Dodge of Milford lives with her family and two as-yet incurable diseases. She was diagnosed at age 5 with Type 1 diabetes. In 2008 she was diagnosed with eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorder (EGID), a rare condition that ulcerated her digestive tract.Diabetes and EGID complicate her life, but the diseases neither define nor confine Madi, now 14. She focuses outward, on her goals. She turns her ailments into action.
“The day that I was diagnosed (with diabetes) I told myself that I was going to help others dealing with the same things that I would, until there was a cure.” She vowed to help find a cure.
The 5-year-old Madi signed up for the American Diabetes Association’s Walk for Diabetes and formed her own team, Madison’s Prayer, to raise money for diabetes research. “If I was going to help find that cure and to reach my goals with helping others, I was going to need to pray,” she says, “so that’s why I chose Madison’s Prayer for my team name.”
In addition to the annual walk, the teen crafts and sells journals and photo books for research dollars. She’s sold more than 500 journals door-to-door and at community events. She organizes fundraising pancake breakfasts, raffles and Skate4aCure, and she speaks at ADA events.
“I heard her speak three or four years ago,” says Nina Pletcher of Milford, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator. “The most impressive thing I heard her say was that diabetes affects your heart, and she was hoping it wouldn’t, because she would never have the chance to experience what it was like to have a broken heart. She keeps it real. She’s always been that way. I’ve never known her to shrink from the dialogue and the opportunity to talk about her circumstances.”
Carlos Mir of Delmar, market manager for the ADA, tells this story: “We were at a gala with Mike Castle (co-chair of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus), and she was giving a presentation.” Madi spoke about the ADA-sponsored Sugar-free Weekend Retreat she attended soon after she was diagnosed and how the experience helped her. “The next minute, after the presentation, we had $8,000 donated on behalf of Madison,” says Mir.
Madi’s mother, Wendy Dodge, felt conflicted about sending Madi to that first retreat. “The ADA said I should send Madi because there were lots of kids there who had a chance to work through their anger and negative feelings,” Wendy says. “I got off the phone and thought, here’s this sweet 5-year-old who has none of those feelings. She was perfectly happy, accepted all of it. Did I really want to send her?
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