Once her daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2001, Tala Laloulu of Kihei, Maui, became so focused on caring for the girl that she neglected her own health.

Because she is Samoan and has a family history of type 2 diabetes, Laloulu is at higher risk for the disease.

"I was not eating the right things and constantly eating whatever I wanted. I didn't think that anything was going to happen. I thought maybe I'll get it," she said.

A routine medical examination in 2005 revealed that Laloulu, 37, had developed type 2 diabetes.

"At first I felt disbelief, but in a way I was OK with it because my mom had it and my grandmother had it."

Laloulu, a manager at the Kihei Safeway, remains focused on keeping her 14-year-old daughter, Judy, healthy.

"We switched our lifestyle. Everything in the house is around her. Whatever she has to eat, we eat. If she can't drink soda, nobody can," she said. "Everybody watches what we eat and we don't eat as much rice as before."

Still, Laloulu admits it's a struggle to keep herself on track. "I wouldn't say I have three healthy meals a day. I've got to work and I'm a smoker. I know I shouldn't and I'm going to quit eventually," she said.

Most of the time she's thinking about her daughter, now a ninth-grader at Maui High School.

"She's so-so," Laloulu says of the girl. "There are good days and bad days, and then there are worse days.

"There are some scary times with her when she gets real ill."

When Judy was first diagnosed, the family knew little about diabetes.

"We were in denial mostly. We didn't know much about it," Laloulu said. "It tore the family apart. We nearly lost her."

Her daughter requires daily insulin shots and four to six blood-glucose checks a day. She tries to avoid any attention that might bring.

"She doesn't want to be marked as 'special.' She tries to be as normal as possible," Laloulu said.