LEYDEN — A Greenfield Community College student who has Type 1 diabetes and a neurological condition called hydrocephalus has started a fundraiser to help her purchase and train a diabetic alert dog that would help her manage her health and increase her independence.
Julia Nicholas-Duprey, 21, has launched a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $8,000, and has raised more than $1,500 as of Wednesday afternoon. Nicholas-Duprey, who lives in Leyden with her parents on their sheep farm, Leyden Glen Farm, explained she underwent several brain surgeries at a young age because of her hydrocephalus, which causes a build up of cerebral spinal fluid in the brain. She said the condition has made academic work challenging.
“Having a disability makes you feel different in general,” Nicholas-Duprey said. “I was in special education classes through grade school and high school.”
Nicholas-Duprey graduated from Pioneer Valley Regional School in 2017. The school nurse helped monitor her blood sugar levels, but she had to visit the nurse’s office multiple times a day.
A diabetic alert dog, though, would not help with her hydrocephalus; only her Type 1 diabetes, which Nicholas-Duprey was diagnosed with when she was 6. It’s a genetic condition she shares with her aunt and grandfather.
“Both of these conditions cause a huge amount of stress,” she said.
According to Nicholas-Duprey, having a diabetic alert dog will allow her to maintain her independence and monitor her blood sugar levels. She currently uses an insulin pump. However, some days, hundreds of units of insulin still won’t bring her blood sugar down, she noted.
“Other days I eat the equivalent of a six-course meal and still don’t have enough sugar in my body to bring my blood sugar back up,” Nicholas-Duprey said on her GoFundMe page. “Living with diabetes puts me in a near-constant state of anxiety trying to monitor blood sugar levels, even though I have a continuous blood sugar monitor as it doesn’t always warn me in time to balance my blood sugar level.”
Having Type 1 diabetes is a vicious cycle, she said. Diabetic alert dogs are specially trained to alert people when their blood sugar is too low or too high. They are professionally trained, official service dogs recognized through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Nicholas-Duprey said people who apply for diabetic service dogs are often put on a two-year waiting list before being accepted.
Nicholas-Duprey said she’ll need to spend at least one full week at the training facility in Kansas with Cares Inc., the company through which she would receive a dog. The company trains medical alert, seizure and diabetic alert dogs, as well as comfort and therapy dogs.
Getting a diabetic service dog, she said, will help her gain confidence as she looks to move out of her parents’ house in the near future. Nicholas-Duprey said she can get low blood sugar levels at night, and risks sleeping through the dangerously low levels or even the alarm from her insulin pump. Getting a dog will help better alert her when this happens in her sleep, or any time during the day, she said.
“People may be skeptical of the dogs, but in reading about it and speaking with families, it works,” she said.
Nicholas-Duprey is also an active advocate for the use of diabetic alert dogs. She said hopes to work with Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, starting in the new year, to consider crafting a bill to have service dogs covered by medical insurance as none of them are.
The $8,000 fundraising goal will cover the initial cost of a dog — up to $5,000 — as well as travel costs for Nicholas-Duprey and her mother to go to Kansas and spend time training with the dog.
“Diabetes is a disease I would not wish on anyone,” she said. “It brings a constant state of anxiety due to the fluctuation of my sugar levels. Diabetics who get these dogs feel a sense of anxiety relief. … I strongly believe that owning a diabetic alert dog will increase the quality of my life.”
To donate, visit Nicholas-Duprey’s GoFundMe page at bit.ly/34b7mpt. A blog dedicated to her service dog efforts can be found at bit.ly/2YZsJsT.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 264.