Nov 9, 2016 5 min read

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Marco Aprea’s heart was racing and he was nervous. After all, it’s not every day a 14-year-old addresses a crowd of 1,300 people. He stepped on stage, said a few words and then cracked a joke: “What do you never say to a diabetic? I got you some sugar free candy. Because my pancreas is broken but not my taste buds!” The crowd laughed right along with the East Washington teenager and Washington High School eighth grader, because many of them – like him – are diabetics.

Aprea was diagnosed at age 7 with Type 1 diabetes. That means his pancreas can’t produce the insulin it needs to get energy from sugars and starches from his bloodstream into his body’s cells.

The audience for Aprea’s speech knew all about the challenges of living with diabetes, because it took place in Pittsburgh at the recent American Diabetes Association fundraiser Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes, where he served as one of its youth ambassadors. “It was pretty good,” he said. “Everybody laughed a lot. When I was at camp, they saw that I liked camp so much that they asked me to be an ambassador, because they thought I would be a good role model for the other campers.”

The camp he’s referring to is the American Diabetes Association’s Camp Courage, which is held each July at the YMCA’s Camp Soles in the Laurel Highlands. In addition to all of the regular camp activities like swimming, volleyball and nature hikes, Camp Courage also teaches diabetic kids ages 6 to 17 about nutrition and their medications. “Before every meal, they have us all check our blood sugar,” Aprea said. “When we all do that, it makes us all feel at home – everybody’s the same there. They give us education on what we’re going to eat at that meal and stuff to use on the insulin pump.”

Aprea uses an insulin pump to regulate his diabetes now and he says it’s improved his daily routine immensely. “Every meal, I check my blood sugar and give myself insulin,” he said. “It used to be that I would take shots every day, every meal. An insulin pump made it a lot easier for me – I only have to take one shot every two or three days and it just gives me insulin every meal.”

It’s sometimes hard to remember when talking with him that Marco is only 14 years old. But he has been dealing with his condition for half his life already. “It’s been a learning experience,” he explained. “I feel like if I had gotten diabetes this past year, it would have been a lot harder. Because I got it in first grade, I kind of forget what life was like without diabetes.”

Now, he says, it’s just a matter of managing it.

His diagnosis came after a trip to the emergency room. “My heart hurt for about a week and I started to wet the bed and started to lose a lot of weight,” he recalled. “My dad took me to the emergency room to check my blood sugar.” His blood glucose reading was nearly nine times the normal level and he wound up at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. Now, he goes for bloodwork and testing every three months and meets with a nutritionist and dietitian for guidance on his diet. He doesn’t have to keep a food diary because his doctor can download his intake directly from his insulin pump. Still, it’s a daily struggle.

“He jokes around a lot,” said Marco’s mother, Lisa Aprea. “It’s probably harder for me.” Lisa and her husband, Tony, have three children and Marco is their youngest. “Having teenagers before, they have challenges of their own, but Marco’s challenges are almost all diabetes related,” Lisa said. “It’s his health and, as parents, we can see what the effects are later if you don’t take care of yourself. We want to make sure he lives a long, healthy life so we’re on top of him more than he would like.”

Marco is taking sophomore algebra as an eighth grader. “He does really well in math,” Lisa said, and explained that those skills come in handy when managing his diabetes. “You have to know how to calculate and count carbs and the carb/insulin ratio and be able to do that kind of math.” Marco admits it’s tiresome, but he tries to stay upbeat. “A couple times a year when I go get my blood drawn, I think to myself, ‘Why do I have to do this every year and no one else does?'” he said. “I think it’s made me a little bit more responsible. I think it’s made me more intelligent because I know more about medical research and things like that.” He said his journey with diabetes, coupled with his father’s medical career, have him leaning toward a future in the medical field.

For now, Marco enjoys playing on the junior high football team and also likes video games and reading. Still, one of his favorite activities is going to Camp Courage each summer. He helped with a fundraiser this year that netted $14,000 to send kids to the camp. “This year,” he said excitedly, “we’re starting up a walk at school in the spring and I can still go to camp every year and have fun.”