Editor’s note: This is another in a series of stories leading up to the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure on April 20.

The Schnur family has always lived with the reality of diabetes.

Travis Schnur was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 13. His father and grandfather also had Type 1.

With such an extensive family history, nobody was surprised last year when his then-2-year-old daughter, Elena, was diagnosed.

“She started acting funny,” said Jessica Schnur, Elena’s mother. “She was so light, and she was drinking tons.”
Recognizing the symptoms, the family took Elena to Sentara Obici Hospital. Her blood sugar was 721 — the normal range tops out at about 130, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Elena was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, where her father also learned to manage his diabetes. In Type 1 diabetes, the less common type, the pancreas does not produce any insulin, a hormone that helps the body process sugar. The more common Type 2 develops when the body does not produce enough insulin, or the cells ignore the insulin.

Elena now is doing well managing her diabetes, Jessica Schnur said.

“She’s been doing great with it,” Schnur said. “She’ll tell you when she wants to check her sugar. She can do it herself, too.”

After her daughter’s diagnosis, Jessica Schnur was looking online for resources and stumbled across a website for the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure, which was coming to Suffolk for the first time last year.

Jessica, Travis and his mother, Betty Eure, all rode in the 10-mile bicycle ride to help find a cure for diabetes.

“I cried coming back in, I was so excited,” Jessica Schnur said. “It’s real fun to do.”

They plan to ride once again in this year’s Tour de Cure, set for April 20 and departing from King’s Fork High School.

“It’s all back roads,” Betty Eure said. “It’s beautiful out there.”

The team did a small fundraiser before the Tour last year, but this year they plan on kicking it up a notch.

Team Schnur will hold a fundraiser on March 23 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Waterhole, 1708 Holland Road. There will be lunches for sale for $5, raffles, door prizes and more. Many businesses have donated items, including grocery gift cards, Virginia Tech and Redskins gear, a pop-up event tent, and more. The public is welcome.

“I hope we really do good with our fundraiser,” Betty Eure said. The team’s overall goal is $1,000.

The Tour de Cure features 10-, 30-, 65- and 100-mile courses that loop around Suffolk’s country roads. For more information on it, visit www.diabetes.org/hamptonroadsvatour.