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Kalispell 4-year-old leading fight against diabetes

Posted: Apr 13, 2011 1:17 PM by Dax VanFossen (KAJ News)
Updated: Apr 14, 2011 9:26 AM


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KALISPELL- Juvenile diabetes is probably something you never think about, unless you are faced with it in your own life. And for one local Kalispell family, that's exactly what happened. At not even two years old, the Hammer family learned of their son's condition, and now they are fighting back.

Taite Hammer is the son of Kalispell radio DJ Mike Hammer. Taite is your average everyday kid, except he's been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. "I'm old, I'm 4."

"When Taite was 20 months old, he was diagnosed January 3rd of 2009 with Type 1 diabetes and as we found out, he wasn't eating properly, he was severely thirsty, he was wetting himself frequently, we went to go get him checked out and they told us he was a Type 1 diabetic," Mike explained.

Since then, Mike and his wife Shanna have been educating themselves on juvenile diabetes. The Hammer's have also taken on a goal of raising awareness and raising money to help fight against juvenile diabetes. A special event Thursday night will help the cause.

A local Kalispell business has offered to join in the fight against juvenile diabetes as well, and you can help too. Hu Hot Mongolian Grill will donate portions of all meals served, toward the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Part of the proceeds will go directly to JDRF, which is a non profit organization that is looking for a cure for Type 1 diabetes, so part of the proceeds that night will go toward...research, and we'll also have a raffle and a 50-50 drawing so we just like to invite as many people as possible that will come out and join us," Mike continued.

He added that finding a permanent solution is the goal. "The more we knew about it, the more we knew that we can manage it, but we're really looking to try to find a cure."

As for Taite, he's living a pretty good life right now. "[What] I like to do for fun is jumping."

The dinner will be held at Hu Hot Mongolian Grill in Kalispell from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 14th. Statistics show that since January, three more Flathead Valley children have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

Topics: diabetes, Kalispell, Hu Hot

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