Imagine being 10 years old, watching family members and neighbours all around you coping with the same disease, and dreading being diagnosed with it yourself.

“In First Nations communities, Type 2 diabetes is an intergenerational disease,” says Brandy Wicklow [B.Sc.(Med.)/03, MD/03], associate professor of pediatrics and child health and researcher with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

The effects of colonization set the cycle in motion, Wicklow says, and many Anishininew people of the Island Lake area carry a gene variant that puts them at increased risk.

“The kids bear witness to what diabetes does in their communities,” Wicklow says. “They may have a grandmother on dialysis or a parent who’s had an amputation because of complications.

“Our research shows that these kids live with a chronic level of distress. If they’re diagnosed themselves – often around the time of puberty – they experience fear, shame and stigma.”