Jackson was invited to participate in a JDRF photo shoot when he was 7 years old after a friend passed on the opportunity. He was on the cover of JDRF’s Annual Financial Report, made friends with the JDRF staff and was invited to participate in a national TV ad, “What does hope look like?” with Mary Tyler Moore.

He was the narrator in the JDRF DVD “Almost Bionic” with Dr. Aaron Kowalski. The DVD is given to newly diagnosed children in their JDRF Bag of Hope and is used to educate viewers about the Artificial Pancreas Project and the paired use of the insulin pump and CGM. In 2012, he was featured in the TV ad “Type 1 Tests Me” with Mary Tyler Moore, Nick Jonas and Crystal Bowersox.

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Jackson moved from New York to Santa Barbara in 2015 and started going to the William Sansum Diabetes Research Center. His doctor is Dr. Jordan Pinsker and coincidentally was working on the Closed-loop Artificial Pancreas System, which is the same system he narrated about years ago in NY in the JDRF "Almost Bionic." Jackson had the opportunity to be one of 250 participants in an International Closed-loop Artificial Pancreas pump (TANDEM) trial which he now wears.

JDRF (formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) is a major charitable 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to funding type 1 diabetes research (T1D). JDRF’s stated vision is “a world without type 1 diabetes.”