Ilene Raymond Rush is an award-winning health and science freelance writer. Based on her own experiences with type 2 diabetes, she brings a personal take and a reporter’s eye to examine the best and newest methods of treating and controlling the disease.
Raymond Rush's diabetes journey began with a diagnosis of gestational diabetes 30 years ago while pregnant with her first son. For 7 years, she was able to avoid a diagnosis of type 2 with daily 6-mile runs, but with a second pregnancy the gestational diabetes returned. In 1987, Raymond Rush was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and started a regimen of medication, diet, and exercise.
Over this time, as a freelance writer for newspapers, magazines, and the web, she's had access to doctors, scientists, and the latest research on diabetes -- a perk that has proved both inspirational and frustrating: It's one thing to know what to do, but it's another thing to do it. She doesn’t always succeed, but she’s given up on achieving perfection.
Raymond Rush is a graduate of Brandeis University and the Iowa Writers Workshop. Her work appears regularly in the Health & Science section of The Philadelphia Inquirer and on dLife. Her essays, articles, and fiction have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including AARP, Diabetic Living, Weight Watchers Magazine, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home Journal, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, and Parents. In addition, her short fiction has been awarded an O. Henry Prize and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
She lives outside of Philadelphia with her professor husband and their plump schnauzer, Noodle.