Brian Foster's Sweet Hat Trick: Advocate, Educator, and Dad to a T1D Warrior

T1D Strong spoke with Foster about parenting a child with type 1, starting a new Grownup T1Ds chapter in Philly, and his latest blog, My Sweet Hat Trick, which tackles diabetes with empathy, humor and passion. 

A Delayed Childhood Diagnosis

In 1980, at age seven, Foster had symptoms of diabetes. His parents took him to the Atlantic City Hospital near his home, where they hadn’t seen many type 1 diabetes cases. They sent the Fosters home with a more type 2-based education, so they weren’t well-positioned for success. 

“My pediatrician had never had a child with diabetes under his care, and sent us to the Children’s Hospital in Philly, where I spent another two to three weeks learned how to manage the disease.”

Foster, who grew up in Atlantic City, has no known family history of T1D. “My grandmother was one of seven surviving siblings, but had almost as many who had died during childhood. 

“Kids with diabetes did not live long once they were diagnosed, so we’ll never know if one of them had it.” 

Triathlete and Ultra Runner

Foster started running when he was young, and ran through high school and college. 

“No one on my collegiate coaching staff knew anything about diabetes, so when I graduated, I went on to earn a master’s degree in exercise physiology and health psychology. 

After completing more than 30 years of triathlons and marathons, he shifted his focus to ultra running—long-distance races that extend beyond the standard 26.2-mile marathon.

“There was a time when I would qualify for the Boston Marathon every year and do the Ironman. Now, I’ve kind of really fallen for ultra-marathons, which are so different from the other races because there are so many factors out of your control. You have to use your knowledge of running and diabetes to get through it. There’s something very meaningful in that, because in its purest form, that’s what living with diabetes is all about.” 

Dad to a T1D Warrior

Foster said that when each of his three children made it past age seven (the age of his diagnosis) without diabetes, he would breathe a sigh of emotional relief, even though it didn’t make any sense.   

“I knew there was no scientific basis for this, but when they made it past eight, I thought, ‘They’re not going to get diabetes.’”

 Unfortunately, two weeks after his youngest son, Owen, passed his eighth birthday, he was diagnosed with T1D. “I had that release, and then literally two weeks later, I saw the signs, and we went to the hospital. The good news was he didn’t go into DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis).”

Elevated Voices

The type 1 diabetes community is close-knit, whether online, in person, or at a conference. You’d be hard-pressed to meet someone unwilling to connect, offer support or share a helpful tip. Foster is no exception.

With 20 years' experience as a diabetes professional and advocate, he bridges his clinical career, lived experience, and parenting through his website, My Sweet Hat Trick, a collection of posts that inspire others.

My Sweet Hat Trick reflects his three lived experiences: the journey of a person living with T1D, the challenges of parenting a T1D child, and key insights from his career as a diabetes educator.

“The blog started as a way for me to talk openly about diabetes, and Owen’s diagnosis gave me a bit more to talk about,” said Foster. “I like to write my stories with a bit of lighthearted humor. Having a disease so serious, you have to be able to look at the lighter side of it.”

With his gift for storytelling, Foster’s blog lightens the burden of diabetes with a laugh, a resource tip, or a thoughtful antidote. He reaches people where they are and offers guidance to those seeking tech advice or peer support.

“Living with diabetes is a full-time job. Raising a child with diabetes? That’s overtime without overtime pay. And working in diabetes care means helping people manage a condition that never takes a day off,” Foster posted.

“I’m pretty lucky knowing what I know, and not everybody is lucky to have the benefits that I have, so through writing, I found this new role of helping others with diabetes.”

Actions Speak Loud 

Foster credits his parents for teaching him to advocate for himself and others. “Despite not having all the right tools, there was no Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) as a resource, I think my parents did remarkably well for what they had to work with.”

After graduate school, Foster joined Animas, an insulin pump company. He also worked for several other diabetes-related companies before moving into clinical work, which led him to a job with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in health equity.

“To be an activist is to speak. To be an advocate is to listen. Society can’t move forward without both.” – Eva Marie Lewis.

DPAC on the Hill

Foster recently returned from a trip to Capitol Hill with the Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition (DPAC) to urge Congress to advance affordable diabetes tax credits. “I spent the day with Jeff Hitchcock, founder of Children with Diabetes, and Hannah Opdenaker, the Director of Development for DPAC, speaking to representatives from Ohio and Pennsylvania,” said Foster.

One of Foster’s key issues is to highlight the high cost of diabetes and why affordable diabetes tax credits matter.

In his recent post, “Make Your Voice Matter,” Foster breaks down why these tax credits are so important, what they would actually change and how you can contact Congress in under two minutes.  

Breakthrough T1D has a whole children’s advocacy part, which I really think is great, because they’re showing kids how to be advocates, and I want Owen to get started with that, you know, within a year or two.”

“And as great as it is that Breakthrough T1D has always focused on kids—these kids grow up,” said Foster. “They’re going to reach an age where they’re no longer kids, and they’ll have to see an adult endo. I think Grownup T1Ds are definitely filling a hole that needs to be filled. The potential there is huge.”

Enter Grown Up T1Ds—Philly

Grownup T1Ds is a community-focused nonprofit that connects, supports, educates, and advocates for adults with T1D, particularly those in midlife or older who may not feel represented in other diabetes groups.

Grownup T1D founder and T1D Strong contributing writer, Kelly Dawes, said it’s the first and only organization serving the midlife type 1 population. The nonprofit started in Southern California, and now has chapters opening in Boston, Philadelphia and Denver.

Foster and Dawes both attended the DPAC initiative on the Hill and discussed starting a group in Philadelphia. Foster is sharing the leadership role with Gary Scheiner and Danakelly Hampton. 

“The thing about being a grown-up is you’ve got other grown-up things to worry about. So, it might take us a couple of trial and errors before we find a time or regimen that’s going to work,” he said. “We have a couple of chapters to feed off of and learn what went well, and what could be done differently.”

Advice for the Newly Diagnosed and Reasons to be Optimistic

The most important part about this disease is knowing that you’re not alone, Foster said. “Being connected to others with diabetes helps as well as having a circle of people that you trust to share that you have diabetes. There are so many more social opportunities to connect with others today than back when I was growing up.”

He added that the future of T1D innovation holds great promise. “We’re living in a time where you can be excited about what’s going to happen the following year because it could be a new breakthrough. Maybe not the end-all, be-all breakthrough that everybody wants, but it’s getting us closer and closer. And that’s an exciting thing.”