The Better India · 37 days ago

Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at 13, Jazz Sethi Now Helps 60000+ Patients Manage It Better Through 'Diabesties Foundation'

When Jazz Sethi was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at thirteen, she lost seven kilograms in a week and woke from three days in the ICU to a truth that shattered her adolescent certainty: this condition would be with her for life. What began as her own reckoning with isolation and misinformation -- she didn't meet another Type 1 diabetic for years -- became the Diabesties Foundation, now reaching over 60,000 patients and caregivers across India. The organization employs fifty people who all share "the lens of lived experience," offering everything from one-on-one education sessions that average forty-eight minutes (compared to the 2.5 minutes most doctors can spare) to insulin supplies for families who cannot afford them. Behind the statistics are quieter victories: a teenager who no longer feels alone, a young woman who chose to live rather than end her life. Jazz's work reveals a simple architecture of healing -- that those who have walked through darkness themselves often know best how to light the way for others.