Gloria Loring
Seli Groves, Contributor
IT'S BEEN 20 years since Gloria Loring's character, Liz Chandler, charmed her way through the male population of Salem on "Days of Our Lives." But while Loring isn't the daytime presence so many of us miss, she is one of the world's great women of accomplishment. She is a recording artiste, songwriter, author and concert artiste who appears in North America, Europe and Australia. She is a motivational speaker, and a film and television star.
Loring's motivational musical CD, Gloria Loring: Turn the Page, is a seminar in living. "I use stories from my own life, my own experiences," she says. "And I talk about how you learn to grow and move on."
In other words, you turn the page.
Perhaps the most compelling interest for Loring for many years has been her work with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). She became involved with the organisation when one of her two sons was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was four years old.
"The JDRF was there to answer questions and show us how best to help our child. They are committed to curing diabetes," she says. "And I do what I can to help them."
When the JDRF was originally created, the focus was on type 1 or juvenile diabetes, sometimes also called insulin-dependent diabetes.
"But now we're seeing children and teenagers developing type two; what used to be called mature-onset diabetes because it invariably affected only older people. And this is why I decided to write a new book that focuses on type two."
Asked how she manages to combine her successful, multifaceted show-business career with her writing, her seminars, her work as a JDRF spokeswoman and her involvement with a number of creative groups, Loring says, "Somehow, when you believe in something enough to want to be part of it, you find the time to do it."
