Page 194 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2018

HEALTHY LIVING happy helping
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes after a bout with German measles as an infant, Rick Bosarge, 60, of Biloxi has never known a day without the disease — or without its exacting demands, from multiple insulin injections to blood sugar tests. On the other hand, when his grandchild was diagnosed last year with type 1, she had known the freedom of life before diabetes. Still, neither Bosarge, a retired registered nurse, nor his granddaughter, Abigail, 9, an active student at Magnolia Park Elementary in Ocean Springs, has let diabetes interfere with fulfilling their potential.
Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi
601.957.7878 www.msdiabetes.org
Story and photos courtesy of the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi
“I tell my granddaughter, 'Baby, you can do everything you want to do — it’s just that sometimes you may have to
work a little harder,’ ” Bosarge said.
“He taught me I
can do anything I
put my mind to,” Abigail said. “Soccer and Girl Scouts, jazz and hip-hop dancing.
Anything.”
Bosarge is proof. For instance, as a helicopter flight nurse for the
University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, he stepped into the same job at the Baptist Medical Center after personnel were lost in a chopper crash. For her part, Abigail has been named to one of the Coast Soccer Club’s elite Galaxy teams.
And now this formidable grandfather-granddaughter team are serving as honorary co-chairs of the 2018 Mississippi Walk for Diabetes-Gulf Coast, planned for Saturday, September 15, at 10 a.m. in Jones Park. Registration starts at 9.
After a routine checkup revealed her diagnosis, Abigail came to
her grandfather and said matter of factly, “You know you and I have something in common — we both have diabetes and we have to deal with it,”
Bosarge said. “I have to give her credit. She has done far better than I did. Abigail is now on an insulin pump, but she had been giving herself six shots a day for the past year. At that age I just wouldn’t do it.”
When Abigail was first approached about the walk, she sparked to the idea. “If we could do something to help other people I’d be happy to,” she said.
“And this was coming from an nine year old who was just diagnosed,” Bosarge said.
194 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • September 2018
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GRANDFATHER/ GRANDAUGHTER
ON SEPTEMBER 15
Abigail and Emma are all smiles with grandfather Rick Bosarge.
LEAD DIABETES WALK
Abigail and Emma painting with leaves.