Dealing with diabetes

She's known as "the diabetic girl."And that's OK with 14-year-old Blair Chesek of Severna Park, because one of her goals is to help find a cure for the disease.

"It doesn't necessarily describe me," said Blair, who was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, also known as Type 1, in 2002 and has moved from a series of daily shots to an insulin pump to manage the disease. "But it helps. I'm just trying to change the world; just make people realize how much it does affect people."

The high school freshman was recently chosen as one of two Maryland children to lobby on Capitol Hill this spring as part of the Juvenile Diabetes Research...