Denver family creates world renowned center for diabetes research, treatment

The Barbara Davis Center provides world class care to people living with diabetes from 33 countries and 46 states. It all started about 40-years ago with one family and the diagnosis of one little girl.

"When I was diagnosed, I was 7," said Dana Davis, daughter of Marvin and Barbara Davis, founders of the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes was a scary diagnosis for a young girl with no family history of the disease.  In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not make insulin because the body's immune system attacks the islet cells in the pancreas that make insulin. In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas makes less insulin than it used to, ,and the body becomes resistant to insulin. Little did Dana Davis know that she and her family would one-day make history for advancing the research and treatment of Type1.

"When I was diagnosed, there was urine testing that was it. It was really inaccurate. They gave you one shot and hoped you didn't die," Davis explained.

Now, there are continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps that monitor and adjust blood sugar levels every minute of every day.

"Now it's become such a livable, healthy, happy existence as long as you embrace that path," Davis said.

A path largely set out at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, where children have been learning how to manage their disease since 1980.

"The care I get is the same care that anybody that comes to the Barbara Davis Center gets," Davis said during an interview conducted by CBS News Colorado's Michael Spencer in the Presidential Suite in the Four Seasons Hotel Denver.

Dana's parents, Marvin and Barbara Davis, developed the idea for the Center in the months after her diagnosis.

"My Dad, he knew that other people wouldn't be able to do what we do to take care of me. At the time, they were flying me to Boston for care because there wasn't care here," she explained.

In 1977, Barbara Davis started the Children's Diabetes Foundation as the fundraising arm for the Center, and the Carousel Ball was born.

"We were in Palm Springs, and my parents were very close to Frank Sinatra, and he was talking to my mom and said, 'You know, I'm going to…I'll come and do an event and I'll sing…and we'll raise money.' And I guess, I don't remember this, this is my mother's claim, but I guess I said, 'Oh, Uncle Frank, who would listen to you sing.' Because I didn't know who he was," Davis recounted with a laugh.

Ever since that first offer of help, a slew of A-list stars have performed at the Carousel Ball in Denver and Carousel of Hope in Los Angeles. The gala has raised more than $110 million over the years.

"Type 1 is extremely expensive and families are having to choose between taking care of their Type 1 in their family or paying rent or buying groceries, and so a lot of what we do is try to supplement that. We don't want people to have to make that choice," Davis said.

The Barbara Davis Center helps pay for insulin as prices rise, and holds clinical trials on new technologies giving patients access to them.

"When I was first diagnosed they told women, 'You probably shouldn't have kids'. They told you, 'Your life expectancy was so short.' You were probably going to have kidney disease, lost a limb, eye disease, and those are all things that are not part of a Type 1's journey anymore," said Davis.

The journey continues as researchers at the Barbara Davis Center investigate why the immune system kills the cells that produce insulin, causing Type 1 diabetes, and look for ways to stop the damage.

"I think that they always hoped that there would be a cure," Davis said of her parents. "And I think a cure can look like a lot of different things now, and a cure is still up on the horizon."

The work at the Center and the mission of the Foundation have allowed Davis to embrace her diagnosis and claim her community. She's now the Executive Director of the Children's Diabetes Foundation.

"It's been an incredible journey."

"Why did you decided to make this your mission?" Spencer asked.

"I met a lot of kids and people who had Type 1 and really were thriving and doing great and I realized that so much of that came from what my parents had started," Davis replied.

"What does it mean to be able to carry on that part of the legacy?" Spencer followed up.

"I want to make sure that the Barbara Davis Center and the Children's Diabetes Foundation are around another 45 years or so," she explained.

Dana Davis is continuing the vision that Type 1 diabetes doesn't have to be a scary diagnosis with dire consequences, but rather a manageable disease that may one day be prevented.

LINK: For Donations to the Children's Diabetes Foundation

The Carousel Ball is Saturday, October 28, 2023 in Denver. David Foster and Katherine McPhee are hosting and performing, as well as the Counting Crows.