My husband Johnson was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes over 26 years ago. He has suffered many complications as a result of his disease such as multiple eye surgeries, high blood pressure, and kidney failure. As a family we joined Team Diabetes in 2006 so that we could help make a difference in other peoples lives who are diagnosed with diabetes. Not only did we want to raise funds for research and advocacy, but we wanted to help raise awareness about what it means to be diabetic. We were scheduled to run our first marathon in December 2006 in Hawaii, when on September 11 of that year, Johnson’s kidney’s completely failed and he needed to start dialysis. Dialysis was HARD, and each night Johnson needed to hook up to his peritoneal dialysis machine to clean his blood of toxins each night for 9 hours. This was to be our life now, restricted to our home, not much traveling due to his dialysis. Johnson would perform dialysis each night, then get up bright and early and go to work each day. He had a very positive attitude, at least he was alive, and could enjoy his family while he still could. He never missed a day of work. However, Hawaii was a dream for him, one that he wanted so to achieve. Although it would take months of mastering his home dialysis, Hawaii didn’t seem possible. The dream of making it to Hawaii was the one thread that held our little family together during those difficult days. Johnson found a way to make it work. We would ship 720lbs of dialysis equipment to Hawaii ahead of time, and we would still participate in the Hawaii marathon. Crossing the finish line with other Team Diabetes participants was our goal, which we are happy to announce that we met. It was with great pleasure that Johnson was asked to be the guest speaker at the post marathon dinner. After hearing many guest speakers go before him, he started to wonder if the speech he wrote was appropriate. Others spoke of their fundraising efforts, and their training for the marathon, but Johnson spoke from the heart about being diabetic, people’s misconceptions of what that means, he spoke about his low sugars and how they affected his family, he spoke about high blood pressure, and kidney failure as well as his daily life on dialysis. He spoke about how much it meant to him to have made it to Hawaii a dream he always wanted to achieve, and how despite being on dialysis, he and his family proudly crossed the finish line and what an honor it was. It was here during his speech that he made a special announcement, that his wife was considered a match and would be donating one of her kidneys to him in February 2007. After his successful kidney transplant, he and his wife decided to double their fundraising goal that year. Instead of raising $12,000 they would attempt to raise $25,000 for the CDA. After raising $18,000 and almost achieving their fundraising goal, Johnson and his wife became exhausted and tired. They didn’t quite meet their goal, but they had come close enough. That was until later that month Johnson’s second cousin (Baby Aaron) who was just 18 months old at the time, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. This was the inspiration Johnson needed to continue his fundraising campaign. Johnson held a few more events, as well created a YouTube video titled “Johnson’s Journey” where his video documented his fundraising activities, his diabetes, his dialysis as well as his kidney transplant. Johnson is very proud that within a 2 year period he and his wife have raised in excess of $40,000 for the CDA. He achieved his goal of raising awareness with his many television interviews, newspaper articles etc. Johnson was honored with the Regional Inspiration Award presented by the CDA in Ottawa, as well as the National Inspiration Award presented in Vancouver. Johnson is very proud of his achievements and that of his families. He continues to be an inspiration to all of us, to never give up hope, keep raising awareness and encourages others to sign up for the challenge and to join Team Diabetes and become part of an extended family who have the same goals in mind. Help to raise awareness, and funds to bring about a cure for this disease. To raise funds for research and advocacy, and to help make a difference in the lives of others.