Today is my birthday, and I’m celebrating in style because it’s the final day of my #40for14 campaign. For the past 14 days, friends have donated at least $40 a day for type 1 diabetes research. Sure, there’s a bike ride in Nashville involved, but the money goes to research — the real reason I ride. So what does this girl want for her birthday?

I want a cure for type 1 diabetes. 

Obviously, a cure won’t happen today, but the money you donate today could spur research that brings a cure in the near future. I truly believe that, and I haven’t always been able to say those words with such conviction.

When I was diagnosed nearly 20 years ago, doctors told my family there would be a cure in five years. When those five years passed us by, we were told another five years. I have been a skeptic for two decades wondering if a cure will ever be found. As I became an adult and learned how the world worked in terms of insurance, health care and the almighty dollar, I grew even more skeptical.

But a few years ago, I reconnected with JDRF, and I learned about new research involving beta cell regeneration and islet cell transplants. I saw an artificial pancreas on a patient participating in a clinical trial. I went back on the insulin pump and bought my first continuous glucose monitor. My A1c dropped, and I truly embraced diabetes. I became an advocate, and I believed in the research JDRF was funding.

I still believe in the research. I believe there will be tremendous advances made to drug therapies used to treat type 1 diabetes in the coming years. I believe this research will change the world. And I believe with my whole heart, there WILL be a cure for type 1 diabetes in my lifetime. I know you believe it, too, because you continue to support me tremendously with such gracious hearts, and I thank you!

So for my birthday, let’s blow out the candles on type 1 diabetes. It’s my only wish this year!