Sarah Lucas has been involved with JDRF since 1999 and is currently VP of Special Events for JDRF Bay Area. Since her daughter Mary was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) 13 years ago at age 7, Sarah and her family have worked tirelessly to raise critical funds to find a cure.

She and her husband Don are the Founders and Chairs of Spring Fling, the annual benefit for JDRF in Half Moon Bay, raising nearly $6 million for research over the past decade. Sarah attended JDRF’s Children’s Congress in Washington DC with Mary in 2000, has also been a member of the Leadership Council for the Diabetes Center at UCSF for a decade and is currently serving as the 2012 Hope Gala Chair.

Sarah says, “We hear it time and again, but it is true. T1D is a devious opponent, requiring your attention, your skill and your intuition 24 hours a day. You cannot blink or you will face it’s wrath, you cannot look away even for a moment. Each day my daughter lives with this disease is 24 hours she, and those who love her, have had to be on guard, tense that a moment of crisis could come at any time-during the peaceful moments at night while she dreams, during the busy moments that she dashes around New York City. Each day my daughter lives with this disease is 24 hours of assault on her body and we must continue to fight to eradicate this disease-and I know it’s time is coming, I know she will be cured. A cure means freedom.”

Sarah is a distinguished event designer and lifestyle expert, a writer, amateur photographer and local philanthropist whose non-profit events have raised over $10 million for local charities in the past 15 years.

She currently lives in Atherton with her husband and their four children, raising new puppy Mackey, won at this year’s Spring Fling.