An illness athletes once wanted to keep secret has become Lauren Cox’s calling card to build awareness.
The Indiana Fever rookie was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in childhood, but now her mission is to raise consciousness among the uninitiated and to show kids they can accomplish their dreams through perseverance.
The WNBA team’s No. 1 draft pick this season is all about yes-I-can rather than someone who might use an I-can’t-because excuse. Cox is competing in an era when she can play professional basketball with her affliction rather than worry her sport would shun her and skip drafting her because of it.
During her years at Baylor University, the 6-foot-4 center from Flower Mound, Tex. helped spearhead an annual awareness game to draw attention to diabetes and raise money for researching a cure.
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The idea was born, Cox said, when a coach urged her to turn her coping with the disease into an advantage, saying, “You need to start using this as your platform.”
In a high-tech era, where social media can spread a message in a heartbeat, where friends are followers whom someone may never have met, where reputations can be established on tiny screens, anyone who works at it can establish a “platform” that can define them.
Cox, 22, was an All-American, is a member of the highest-profile women’s pro team in the United States, yet for some she is known primarily as “the girl with diabetes.”
And she embraces that because she wants to be out front to help others. Even in her own family, Cox is not alone standing as a symbol of how a person with Type I diabetes can still achieve athletically.
Cox’s younger sister Whitney, also a basketball player, also has diabetes. When Cox was a senior at Baylor the coaches accommodated their situation by scheduling an awareness game between the Lady Bears and Whitney’s Lubbock Christian team.
“It was really good for her,” Cox said.
People know the word diabetes, but they may not know what it does to the body. Diabetes prevents the body from properly processing food into energy, or the sugar sent into the bloodstream. An increase in blood sugar triggers the release of insulin from the pancreas, but when things are not working correctly, the insulin is blocked from doing its job.
Of the two kinds of diabetes, Type I is the more severe and Type II the more common with 90 percent or more of those diagnosed having it. Type I is usually noticed early in life — Cox was seven when diagnosed. Type II more typically develops over years.
Although weight loss, healthy diet and habits can help control diabetes, medication is often required. In the case of Type I, an individual must take insulin daily to live. Cox wears an insulin pump when she plays.
Symptoms of diabetes can include extreme thirst, frequent urination, hunger, blurry vision, fatigue and tingling sensations in the hands or feet.
Cox has spent two-thirds of her life monitoring her symptoms, diet, and medication levels.
Lauren Cox probably never heard of Ron Santo. Certainly, she has never contemplated what went through his mind when he learned at 18 that his diabetes diagnosis informed him he was unlikely to live past 25.
Chicago Cubs and fans at-large recall Santo as a baseball hero. In reality, he is a much bigger hero of another sort.
In 1959, Santo was the top baseball prospect in the country, scouted by everyone. He was in demand from all 16 Major League teams. Shortly before he chose to sign with the Cubs he was diagnosed with diabetes. Since he did not know what that meant, he went to his local library to look it up.
He was stunned to read of his potential life expectancy. Certain no team would want him, he told no one in the sport about his personal discovery.
Santo matured into a nine-time All-Star with sizzling statistics and became one of the most popular players in Cubs history. For years, he injected himself with insulin on the sly, in privacy, even hiding his illness from teammates he shared hotel rooms with on the road.
In 1971, when the Cubs sponsored a Ron Santo Day, he went public, told the world about his diabetes challenge, and soon introduced the “Ron Santo Walk to Cure Diabetes.” Over time the event raised $65 million for research and in 2002, Santo was named the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Person of the Year.
While baseball did not reject Santo because of diabetes (he in fact became a beloved broadcaster after retiring from the field), the disease never set him free. Parts of both legs were eventually amputated due to diabetes.
Santo’s spirit never flagged and in 2004 his son Jeff made a moving documentary about his adulthood affiliated with the Cubs and his struggles with diabetes called “This Old Cub.”
Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler, NBA player Adam Morrison, IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball, Olympic gold-medal swimmer Gary Hall, hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke, golfer Scott Verplank, all competed with Type I. Hall of Fame baseball star Jackie Robinson, who broke the 20th century Major League color barrier, was diagnosed with diabetes after retiring.
Success among professional athletes with Type I diabetes remains rare enough to be singled out, but it crosses the spectrum.It can be done, has been done, but it is never easy to do.
Santo’s health was always subject to diabetes’ whims. He was 70 when he died from cancer — and diabetic complications.
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Diabetes contributed to my father Joseph’s death at 79.
I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes about 10 years ago. I was most struck by the dietary limitation recommendations, joking with a friend with the same ailment that we could go to a bar and order a club soda and a piece of cardboard.
My diabetes was controlled by medication and by an improved, if not a perfect diet, until late June. Abruptly, I began exhibiting several signs of Type I diabetes for a few days. Then I collapsed, passing out on the floor of my home with no warning.
At the doctor’s office I was nearly incoherent and was swiftly admitted through the emergency room to a hospital, spending five days as a patient. I was told I nearly died because of a blood sugar reading of 912 instead of a more acceptable 100.
I believe the cause was described as diabetic ketoacidosis. The doctor did not expect that for someone with Type II. This attack was strong enough it threw my heart out of rhythm and I needed another procedure to shock it back into place. One thing my doctor said was my entire system was discombobulated. I never before heard that word as a medical term.
My medication has changed increased. I now inject insulin.
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Cox was made the Fever’s top draft pick of 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic was underway across the United States.
Medical experts have announced more than once that diabetes is an underlying condition that can make people more susceptible to catching the coronavirus. Many pro athletes with diabetes have opted out of competing during their current seasons.
The Fever, and the WNBA, are competing within a bubble environment in Bradenton, Fla. Cox did not even make it there with the team before testing positive. So, as if being a rookie and handling diabetes, she had to deal with the COVID issue.
The virus delayed the start of the team’s season and the schedule was reduced to 22 regular-season games with Saturday the last one.
Cox, also on the recent injury report because of a left knee issue, has appeared in 14 games and averaged 3.6 points and 3.3 rebounds in what has very much been obstacle-laden year.
“It’s definitely been a challenge I didn’t need,” Cox said of the virus interruption. “It’s always hard going into a new place.”
Once out of the bubble, Fever players have discussed how they can engage with society on issues of social justice. Cox has also mulled how she can continue to bring diabetes awareness to her new home.
“It would be awesome if we could have a game,” Cox said of the Fever designating a contest for diabetes awareness the way her team did at Baylor.
Indiana could wake up one day with its children being introduced to a tall, blonde-haired, dribbling role model as Lauren Cox urges them to never let diabetes get in the way of anything they want to do.