Video: Tacoma athletes motivate children with diabetes

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 TACOMA, Wash. - Four Tacoma teens are proving that diabetes doesn't have to stop you from becoming an athlete.

They want to motivate other kids with the disease, while they help researchers find a cure.

The four athletes all have type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease. During their strenuous workouts they must closely track blood sugar levels to keep them in a healthy target zone.

Team support has been key, says the newest crew member, 17-year-old Sarah Harmon.

"I had been going through a year long period of apathy, of complete apathy about my diabetes," she said.

Then Sarah's friend Gabby Rhett introduced her to Hannah Mendenhall and David Rurik.

They all compete with the Commencement Bay Rowing Club.

"It's made me a lot more dedicated to taking care of myself because crew and diabetes are both really things you have to work at," Harmon said.

Now the teens have set a bigger goal.

"It would be really awesome to not have to take shots or take insulin anymore," Rhett said.

They've joined the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Study. Their blood samples will give researchers important clues.

"What we're trying to do is to figure out what is it about the immune system that went wrong. Why did the people get diabetes," said Dr. Carla Greenbaum, director of the diabetes program at the Benaroya Research Institute.

Researchers there participate in an international search for new treatments, and even prevention.

But they'll need to collect samples from a huge number of participants.

"In order to do these studies we need to screen about 200,000 relatives of people with diabetes worldwide," Greenbaum said.

The crew continues full speed ahead toward that goal.

"We really need to get awareness about diabetes and research and find a cure," Mendenhall said.

The teens want to be role models for younger kids with diabetes who are thinking about sports. They've also held fundraisers through their schools to benefit research.

Families from as far away as Alaska and Montana can join the local research on type 1 diabetes.