Mr. Speaker, for over 40 years, JDRF, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, has been a global leader in the search for an end to type 1 diabetes through both research funding and advocacy. One of those helping achieve this goal of a cure is JDRF Edmonton youth ambassador Ava Sexton.
I had the fortune of meeting Ava, her sisters and her mom at my office recently. Ava is an absolute dynamo and when she is not cheerleading or running, she is educating people in Edmonton on type 1 diabetes, sometimes speaking to crowds of well over 100 despite being just nine years old. Ava states, “A cure to me would mean: no more finger pokes...no more having to treat lows and highs and no more having to sit out of my activities.”
Ava is an absolute inspiration. I know that, against her, type 1 diabetes does not have a chance. It is because of people like Ava that Edmonton is known as the city of champions.