ROANOKE, Va. – A crowd in Roanoke got moving Sunday afternoon to try to stop a disease that affects more than a million Americans.
The JDRF One Walk, which raised money to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, started in Elmwood Park and circled around downtown Roanoke.
In the months leading up to the walk, walkers raised more than $160,000 for the cause. That group includes the Kefauver family; they raised more than $5,000 in honor of their son Harold, who died last year at 18 from complications caused by his Type 1 diabetes.
"Type 1 is very serious. It's life or death," said Harold's mother Laura Kefauver, who has another surviving daughter with Type 1 diabetes. "Our kids need insulin to stay alive, but if they don't have it, they die."
According to JDRF, 1.25 million Americans, including 200,000 people younger than 20 years old, are living with Type 1 diabetes.