Ramya (left), Dr. Bruce Verchere, Co-Director at the Centre (middle), and Dr. Benjamin Mammon, another member of the T1D Lived Experience Advisory Group (right). Photo credit: Macy Yap
Type 1 diabetes stories help shape research
Ramya Hosak was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) at age 19 while attending university. Since then, she has been a devoted volunteer, helping others navigate the challenges of T1D and the steep learning curve that accompanies a life-altering diagnosis.
As co-chair of the T1D Lived Experience Advisory Group at the Breakthrough T1D Canucks For Kids Fund Centre of Excellence at the University of British Columbia (UBC), her perspective helps guide the Centre’s research and connect the T1D community with the researchers advancing cures. Her voice is just one of many representing a diverse group of faces and stories, working with researchers to drive innovative therapies.
Ramya’s passion is nonprofit work, specifically in social justice, community development, and equal access to healthcare. To better unite the T1D community in BC, she co-founded Young and T1, a local support group that helps young adults with T1D through the transition to adulthood.
We asked Ramya to share the reasons behind her incredible volunteering and what T1D research means to her.
Breakthrough T1D Canada: Can you tell us about your T1D diagnosis?
Ramya: I was diagnosed in my second year of university. Super tired and barely able to keep my eyes open in the lecture hall, I was constantly chastising myself. “Don’t be a wimp, everyone else is struggling with midterms and finals, get it together and toughen up, Ramya,” I thought to myself as I chugged a litre of juice.
But I kept getting weaker. Eventually, my parents dragged me to the hospital, practically carrying me to the ER. That’s when I found out, at 19 years old, that T1D can occur at any age, not just in childhood. Initially, I was relieved at the diagnosis that explained my recent exhaustion. Yet as time went on, questions arose that couldn’t be answered by medical professionals who hadn’t been in my position. My parents and friends assumed that as a responsible adult, I had things under control and was fine.
But I wasn’t fine. I went from being a student who enjoyed an active social life, going out with my friends without a second thought, to suddenly having to be so careful. I felt a need to act like everything was fine and hide the toll that the invisible full-time job of T1D was having on me, mentally and emotionally.
I stopped reaching out to my friends for fear of being seen as a complainer and not having a positive attitude. I went through a period of extreme depression, feeling like no one “got me.” But after graduating from university, I started getting better and began meeting others my age with T1D.
Breakthrough T1D Canada: What drew you to participate in the Centre’s T1D Lived Experience Advisory Group?
Ramya: My undergraduate degree was in Health Sciences, and research has always held an interest for me, particularly as my mom is a cancer researcher. I’ve grown up hearing about her excitement, disappointments, and long days/nights that come along with being a researcher. I respect this work immensely, and to be able to work with researchers who are working so hard to find a cure for diabetes and bridge the gap for those living with T1D has always been very important to me. Similarly, I love the questions researchers ask me about living with T1D and helping them to understand why their hard work truly matters.
Photo credit: Macy Yap
Breakthrough T1D Canada: How do you feel about the cure research happening at the Centre?
Ramya: Excited! Not just for me, but for the future generation! I truly believe a cure is in sight, and having had my first child recently (September 2025), the potential to eliminate T1D in the generations to come is such a wonderful thought.
Breakthrough T1D Canada: What research excites you most?
Ramya: I find Dr. Megan Levings’ work on immune system regulation as it relates to T1D particularly interesting. I work at the Kidney Foundation of Canada and have seen her work in the transplant field come up as well. It’s exciting to see research in immunology having the potential to lead to additional breakthroughs in other health-related issues.
Breakthrough T1D Canada: What are your hopes for the future of diabetes?
Ramya: My hope is that within the next generation, T1D markers can be identified in at-risk patients before disease onset or at early onset, and the correct therapies can indefinitely prevent it from fully taking place (by preserving remaining beta cell function, etc.).
“The real glory would be never having to carb-count, constantly be checking my blood levels and worrying about how every variable of life impacts my glucose numbers and therefore how I feel physically and emotionally throughout the day with this 24/7 invisible job. So much mental space would be freed up.”
Ramya with her husband, Mark, who also lives with T1D (diagnosed at age 10), and their newborn daughter.
Breakthrough T1D Canada: What prompted you to launch Young and T1?
Ramya: Upon diagnosis, I started volunteering for Breakthrough T1D (then JDRF), and when working with youth ambassadors, it was so amazing to hear kids meet other kids who shared the same diagnosis. They told stories of bullying at school when their pumps were seen as strange, compared pump colours with each other, and it was just so normal.
I really wanted a community that “got” what living with T1D in adulthood felt like. T1D gets lonely. I hear this a lot. Young people at this transition stage often feel uncomfortable speaking with their doctor or parents about complex issues that arise for an adult with T1D. Thirteen years ago, I did not realize what an awesome resource Young and T1 would be—for myself and now over 700 individuals in BC—for learning and sharing with one another.
Through meeting folks with similar daily struggles, and living with my husband Mark, who also has T1D, I have learned that all bodies are different. One size does not fit all in T1D management, and getting as much information available to us as possible is important. By conveying our struggles and successes with one another, we all benefit from shared knowledge.
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Breakthrough T1D Canada is grateful to Ramya for sharing her story and helping our researchers accelerate breakthroughs. Knowledge sharing is critically important not just among the T1D community but also among the researchers who will one day bring cures to the community.
Breakthrough T1D oversees T1D research worldwide to ensure that teams are collaborating and sharing learnings. The Breakthrough T1D Canucks For Kids Fund Centre of Excellence at UBC is a prime example of that collaboration in action, with over 40 multidisciplinary researchers working together to tackle all angles of cure research.
The Centre is a key pillar of our $100M Campaign to Accelerate, a national campaign with a global impact. Read about research highlights from year 4 of the Centre’s three interconnected research themes advancing cures here.
Philanthropic donors are advancing promising cure research in BC and around the world. To learn more about these exciting projects or to make a leadership gift, please contact:
