On the surface, Caitlin McEnery (NHS ’07) seems to be the typical Georgetown student. She is active in numerous student groups, including Adelphi and the Student Nurses Association, and aspires to attend graduate school and work as a pediatric oncology nurse.

But since she was 3 years old, McEnery has lived with Type 1 diabetes. For the past 10 years, she has worn an insulin pump, allowing her to experience what she calls a “normal” life. But with such a serious condition, many obstacles still stand in McEnery’s path.

“Diabetes is different every day — that’s what’s so challenging about it,” she said.

Type 1 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes, is usually diagnosed in children and there is no known cure for it. The disease occurs when the immune system begins to attack pancreatic cells, leading to a halt in the production of insulin — a hormone that is needed to convert food into energy. It can be fatal without proper monitoring and daily intake of insulin.

But McEnery does not view her condition as an impediment. Instead, she has decided to use her experience to help alleviate the suffering of those afflicted by the disease. She recently returned from Cape Town, South Africa, where she served as a youth ambassador at the International Diabetes Federation’s World Diabetes Congress, which drew over 15,000 participants from around the world.

“Diabetes has made my experience more challenging than others’,” she says. “Everyone has something, and diabetes is my challenge.”

As one of two youth ambassadors from the United States and 25 worldwide in attendance, McEnery took part in the effort to draw global attention to the mounting crisis of diabetes. This was the first year that IDF has included a youth contingent in the congress.

“The goal of the conference was really to create a campaign called ‘United for Diabetes,’” McEnery said. “It was to create a way to spread the word about [diabetes] so that people can recognize it as a global epidemic.”

The youth ambassadors, who arrived earlier than other attendees, participated in a youth leadership workshop and visited South African communities to observe how young people were affected with diabetes. They also met with researchers from South Africa who talked about the work they did in their country and taught the ambassadors strategies for advocacy work in their respective countries.

“The United States is so focused on a cure,” McEnery said. “But in other countries, even the wealthiest people don’t have access to insulin — the basic necessity. It was humbling to be exposed to the fact that while [diabetes] is frustrating to us, [people in other countries] have far bigger battles to overcome.”

McEnery and her fellow U.S. representative, Dana Michelle Lewis, want to create a youth advocacy panel composed of high-school aged adolescents. The panel would be supported by JDRF and pharmaceutical companies and would serve as a way to increase both the involvement of youths in advocacy and raise awareness of the issue inside the country, McEnery said.

Conference attendees also designated a loose circle design as the national symbol for the Unite for Diabetes campaign. McEnery said that she hopes the symbol will help spread awareness of Type 1 diabetes the way that the red ribbon has mobilized support for AIDS.

“Living with diabetes is challenging, but … there’s treatment for it, and other diseases [that] are more widely recognizable just don’t have the same level of treatment,” McEnery said.

While McEnery may be hindered by certain physical impediments, she is armed with a powerful weapon — determination.

“She helps put a human face to this terrible disease,” said Peter Cleary, national director of news media relations for JDRF. “People [with Type 1 diabetes] sometimes get very depressed and become introverted, but Caitlin took this adversity and embraced the problem to seek a change.”

McEnery sees her condition as motivation to carry on with her fight to increase diabetes awareness.

“I think that because I’ve had diabetes for so long, I feel like I’ve been able to make it a part of my life instead of stopping my life to go around it,” She said.