John Wulff

Join us at 8am on Saturday May 9th at Husky Stadium for a 3-mile fun walk to support diabetes research or donate in Abigail’s name here.

My daughter Abigail has Type 1 diabetes (T1D). She was diagnosed in late October 2024, two days before Halloween. The photo above is from last May at the 43rd Annual Beat the Bridge for Breakthrough T1D in Seattle. That was six months in. We were still raw, still figuring out the new normal.

Eighteen months in is a different place.

We’ve built a team around Abigail. Seattle Children’s is incredible. Her school has a 504 plan and a group of adults who deeply know her and her diabetes. Family is dialed in. Friends step up. We don’t take any of it for granted.

She has not let any of it slow her down. If anything, T1D’s presence taunts us into living more, not less. School, friends, adventures, and lots of laughs. It’s not easy. It’s not always fun. But it’s hopeful and full of love.

The research is moving

T1D is autoimmune. It has nothing to do with diet or lifestyle. The pancreas stops making insulin, and the body needs it from outside, forever. Unless something changes.

Things are changing. Vertex’s stem-cell-derived islet therapy zimislecel just published trial results in the New England Journal of Medicine: of twelve patients followed for at least a year after a single infusion, all twelve hit normal blood sugar targets and ten are no longer using insulin at all. The pivotal trial is enrolling now, with FDA submission expected this year.

Teplizumab (sold as Tzield) is the first drug that can delay T1D onset by a median of 2.7 years in kids who test positive for the autoantibodies. The FDA just expanded its approval last week to children as young as one. None of this happened by accident. It happened because people funded the research.

That funding isn’t guaranteed. Federal research dollars are under real pressure right now, and the timing matters. We’re closer to meaningful breakthroughs than we’ve ever been. This is exactly the wrong moment for the pipeline to slow down.

Beat the Bridge 2026

We’re walking again this year in the 44th Annual Beat the Bridge on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Husky Stadium. We’re Team Wulff, the name Abigail picked herself. Her pack means so much to her.

Breakthrough T1D has driven nearly every major advance in T1D care since the 1970s. What we raise here goes to fund research, advocacy, and family support.

To everyone who donated, joined us, or cheered us on last year, thank you. Our community showed up in a way that floored us. We won’t pretend any single contribution is going to cure diabetes, but you changed Abigail’s world.

As her parents, getting to show Abigail that the people in her life see her, that they care, that they have her back, meant so much to us. It’s really hard to be a kid with T1D. The people in her life showing up matters to her, and it matters to us. That’s the whole thing.

Join Us!

The 3-mile walk is fun and free, strollers welcome, and starts at 8:15 AM at Husky Stadium on Saturday, May 9. Parking is in lots E1/E18 just north of the stadium, or take the 1 Line to the University of Washington station.

Sign up for the free walk at beatthebridge.org, then come find us at the start. If you can’t be there in person, donate in Abigail’s name instead.

Walk with us. Donate. Share Abigail’s story. Whatever you can do helps. From our family to yours, thank you.

– John, Courtney, and Abigail