Ball State University Athletics
Sports Link: Type None (Tanner Barton)
March 04, 2016 | Men's Swimming and Diving
In 2013, Sports Link introduced the world to Tanner Barton, a Ball State swimmer who lives with Type-1 diabetes.
Barton is a junior captain on the men's swimming and diving team, and one of the approximately 1.25 million people in America who suffer from Type 1 diabetes, according to diabetes.org.
Barton serves on an international council for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) called the Type 1 Diabetes Voices Council. The 17 members who make up the council each represents and speak on behalf of a different population. Barton is the youngest in the council and represents all young adults and athletes living with Type 1 diabetes.
“When I was younger, I never saw myself being such an advocate," Barton said. "I was always in an advocacy position, and I was always a spokesperson for the disease."
Barton was one of four members on the council invited to represent the United States on Nov. 14 for World Diabetes Day at a national convention held right outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. The company, Novo Nordisk, hosts the event as an insulin manufacturer. The initiative of the Voices Council is to bridge the gap between patients who use the products and the scientists who create them.
With a GoPro camera, Tanner takes us behind-the-scenes of this life-changing event.
Produced by Adrian Jarding and Allison Wilson.
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