Mother-Daughter
Team Up for a Cure...
with training wheels.

Duana C. Welch, Ph.D., and President of BlabberMouth PR, and her ‘little SA woman’ Julia Cameron, 5, make quite a team when it comes to battling diabetes at the ADA’s upcoming Tour de Cure. But getting to this point has been a long, scenic, and sometimes treacherous road.

Three years ago, Duana Welch was preparing for tenure at California State University, Fullerton’s, psychology department, where she taught business psychology and ran a laboratory. At the height of her career and just two years after the birth of her baby daughter, she received shocking and life-altering news. Her beautiful little girl had insulin-dependent diabetes that would require constant care and monitoring. Duana’s baby girl was required to have up to seven shots every day.

After six years with her professorship, Duana didn’t even blink an eye as she resigned for the sake of her daughter. She brought Julia home to San Antonio to be close to her extended family. Says Duana, “Joseph Campbell once said that we must be willing to get rid of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. I’ve gotten to experience the joy that can arise from heeding that advice.”

Once Julia’s health stabilized, Duana sought employment utilizing skills from her career experiences, finding a niche for her communications and research expertise in public relations where she quickly rose to a top executive post at BlabberMouth PR. “It’s been a dream career. At BlabberMouth, we only bring on senior-level PR specialists—never junior-level—to strategize and implement every portion of clients’ campaigns, which enables us to serve numerous industry verticals while officing virtually. Not only has this model enabled me to be fully present for my child, but it has given me the opportunity to apply business psychology for the betterment of diverse enterprises’ branding.”

Understanding the difficulties of having a child with diabetes, Duana offered the ADA’s San Antonio chapter her expertise in public relations. She was accepted into the organization as their outsourced PR counsel and became the Communications Chair, obtaining media attention for the ADA year-round. “BlabberMouth PR encourages each of our specialists to select one pro bono account as a means of giving back to our community. My pro bono account is the ADA. They are the only organization dedicated to providing education, research and advocacy for all persons with diabetes and their families. I chose the ADA not only because of Julia, but because diabetes is a tremendous threat in the greater San Antonio area. More and more of our adults and children are experiencing the devastation of the most prevalent kind of diabetes—twice as many in Bexar County as in the nation as a whole. I want to be part of preventing and curing diabetes with the ADA, and so does Julia.”

In fact, Julia—a thriving kindergarten chocoholic who wears an insulin pump, recently became the ADA San Antonio chapter’s Junior Ambassador, in which post she has raised more than $7,000, becoming the top individual for last November’s America’s Walk For Diabetes.

Julia is now tackling the Tour de Cure. She’s enthusiastic about participating in the cycling event for eloquently-stated reasons: “Right now, mostly grown-ups have diabetes, but it’s growing fastest with kids. I like being me, but I don’t like having diabetes. I don’t want any other kids to have to get it, either.” Indeed, 1 in 3 children born in 2001 will develop diabetes in their lifetime, making that generation the first one with a shorter life expectancy than prior generations.

“Our paths have diverged significantly from what I thought they would be, but much of that has been a blessing. The ADA is doing vital work on behalf of all San Antonians. I’m delighted to be on the front lines with Julia, celebrating her healthy and happy life and encouraging others to help prevent and cure diabetes. I hope all of SA will turn out for Tour de Cure and ride along with Julia and me. If she can do it on training wheels, we can all do it!”

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