To be diagnosed with a life-altering illness at any age is quite the shock, but even more so if a disease impacts one’s youth. Fitting in monitoring the body alongside the trappings of adolescence can be a lot on one’s plate, but one local student has learned to live fearlessly despite his condition.
This past month, Santa Monica High School senior Lucas Marcelo Milk was awarded the Skin Grip Diabetes Scholarship, putting $1,000 toward his eventual college education. Milk, a captain of the Samohi track team and member of the school’s soccer unit, has achieved a healthy student-athlete life, even after being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 2019. The scholarship came courtesy of Skin Grip, which produces adhesives to keep glucose monitoring devices attached to those impacted by the disease, and was facilitated by scholarship hub Bold.org.
“We [felt] like, just for us, it was a way that we could put our money to good use by being able to have full transparency of choosing who got the scholarships, so we could look at the need and [other factors] to be able to decide where our money was going,” said Skin Grip Founder Isaac Parkinson.
Calling on students who live courageously with diabetes to apply for the scholarship, Skin Grip has honored 65 students with the honor over the past three years, giving out more than $50,000 toward higher education. Milk was encouraged to apply through Bold.org, submitting a video essay speaking on his athletic experiences while managing his condition.
While some might be taken aback by a serious diagnosis like Type One, Milk’s reaction was actually one of relief, having gone undiagnosed for the prior year and not knowing what was wrong with him.
“I was just urinating all the time, I was vomiting [too],” Milk said. “In one class period, I had to pee like four times, the teachers thought I was vaping or something … [it] was just a really hard time for me that whole year, I didn’t really know what was wrong with me, and it just felt really isolating … my body felt like it was tearing itself apart.”
The situation became even worse after being told by a doctor that he was simply working out too much and needed to eat more, and Milk’s condition deteriorated to the point he was hospitalized for two weeks due to his high blood sugar. He called the proper diagnosis a “huge turning point” in his life, allowing him to switch to a low-carb diet that helped him monitor his sugar levels.
“It kind of [was] like giving a name and a face to the enemy and [know] what you’re up against,” Milk added. “So in a way, it was relieving, not [that] it [wasn’t] still very scary at times, but it kind of felt like I had direction again.”
The scholarship was the culmination of Milk reconstructing his life and habits to the point he became a highly successful athlete at Samohi, with Bold.org VP of Donors Tori Meglio saying the honor celebrates students with diabetes and their “resilience, determination and the daily courage they exhibit in balancing their educational pursuits with health challenges.”
“This recognition can inspire others, foster [a] supportive community and break down the stigma associated with chronic illnesses in general,” Meglio said. “By celebrating these students, we’re not only honoring their individual journeys, but also encouraging a culture of empathy, understanding and empowerment.”
Milk plans to use the scholarship funds towards his dream, studying in the University of Southern California film department, a dream Parkinson supports while cautioning that college attendees living with diabetes won’t have the same support structure as before.
“New friends, new routines, new doctors in many cases, there’s just a lot that goes into those big changes [a] lot of people worry about,” Parkinson said. “We just want to [help] them financially so they have one less thing to worry about.”
No matter where his journey takes him, Milk is proud to be an example of how to turn the detriment of living with diabetes into a strength.
“Whenever I talk to other people who are newly diagnosed, I always try to [not say] everything’s gonna be okay,” Milk said. “I try to really tell them, you know, this is how I’ve dealt with it. And you know, I’m not special, I’m just some guy, if I can do it, anyone can do it … it can be something that you have to be conscious of and you have to take care of yourself, but it can [become] something that’s not such a factor in your day-to-day life.”
For more information about Skin Grip, visit skingrip.com. Visit Bold.org to learn more about other scholarship opportunities.