Walking FOR A BETTER FUTURE

Since 28-year-old Eliza Bartlett was diagnosed with type 1 at the age of nine, she has used her diabetes as a driving factor to raise more than $100,000 for JDRF research.

- Ellie Griffiths

But, rather than fundraising by selling cupcakes and chocolates, this motivated, athletic and resilient woman from Adelaide has taken on – and conquered – two extreme walks.

“I have always been very competitive and I like to challenge myself,” explains the type 1 diabetes ambassador. “Adding this to my huge passion to help educate, raise awareness and money for type 1 diabetes, I decided I wanted to see how I could combine the two.”

After seeing footballer Shane Crawford tackle a walk from Adelaide to Melbourne to fundraise for breast cancer, Eliza was inspired to follow in his footsteps in 2013. Along the 780km route, the then 21-yearold experienced extremely high BGLs (~20mmol/L) due to torn tendons, stress fractures and infected blisters – some of which needed medical attention.

Despite the pain, she raised more than $25,000 for JDRF and was determined to go even further. “I was blown away by the success of fundraising and wanted to push myself to see how much more I could do,” she explains. “I started planning a walk across America almost instantly, however, after a few challenges and setbacks during planning, I changed this to Europe.”