You and your parents can get even more helpful info and advice about living with diabetes at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada website.
Stars with Diabetes
More than two million Canadians of an estimated 6.6 billion people around the world have diabetes. Here are some people who’ve proved you can still be and do everything you want to, even if you have diabetes:
Musicians with diabetes
Nick Jonas, of The Jonas Brothers, sees his type 1 diabetes as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. His song, "A Little Bit Longer," that he wrote, is about having diabetes.Bret Michaels, since he was diagnosed at a very young age six, diabetes has been a part of the singer and reality star's life since he can remember. His band Poison always builds two breaks into its live shows - a drum and a guitar solo - so he can slip off stage and check his blood sugar.
Randy Jackson, the American Idol judge and performer thought he had a cold when he visited the doctor in 2001, only to be told he had diabetes. Since then he’s dropped a whopping 230 pounds. He manages his diabetes with medication, and by giving up the childhood comfort foods, like pies and cakes he grew up with.
Tommy Lee, the Motley Crue drummer and Pamela Anderson’s ex, proves you can still rock even if you have diabetes. He has type 2.
Elliott Yamin, may not have won American Idol, but he’s had a top 20 single with “Wait for You” and is succeeding in managing his type 1 diabetes. Even though he admits he was rebellious about his diagnosis at age 16, and says “diabetes sucks sometimes,” he’s been campaigning for a cure and advises teens with diabetes to dream big.
Other musicians with diabetes:
Patti LaBelle (R&B legend: type 2)
B.B. King (blues legend: type 2)
Johnny Cash (country singer)
Syd Barret (Pink Floyd co-founder/rocker)
Andrew Lloyd Webber (Broadway composer: type 2)
James Brown (funk legend)
Phife Dawg (rapper)
Elvis Presley (singer)
Jessica Stone (singer/actress)
Actors, actresses and spokespeople with diabetes
Halle Berry, the Academy Award winning actress was diagnosed at age 22 when she passed out on the set of a show she was taping. However, when Berry reported in 2007 that she'd weaned herself off of insulin through diet and exercise and had become a Type 2, experts became wary. It's now suspected that she's had Type 2 all along - but the drama created a lot of public awareness about both forms.Delta Burke is now almost as well known for being the celebrity spokesperson for “Let’s Talk,” which teaches people to manage diabetes through diet and exercise, as she is for her star role on the TV show Designing Women. She has type 2 diabetes.
Dick Clark, a famous host and performer who’s often called America’s oldest teenager manages his type 2 diabetes with medication, diet and exercise.
Other actors, actresses and spokespeople with diabetes:
Mary Tyler Moore (actress: type 1)
Aida Turturro (Sopranos actress: type 2)
Larry King (talk show host)
Dorian Gregory (TV star)
Athletes with diabetes
David Wells, pitcher for the LA Dodgers, and at one time for the Toronto Blue Jays, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2007 and has since then made some major lifestyle changes to improve his health and get his diabetes under control.Ayden Byle was the first insulin dependent diabetic to successfully run across North America (6521.5 kilometers!) and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for diabetes research.
Sean Busby, who is training for the 2010 Olympics in snowboarding, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes after suffering illness in what he calls an “off season” in 2004. Busby refuses to let diabetes stop him and works hard to take care of himself so he can live a normal life.
Jay Cutler, NFL quarterback for the Chicago Bears, who discovered he had Type 1 Diabetes in the spring of 2008. But that hasn’t stopped Cutler from setting his sites on legendary Bronco quarterback John Elway’s passing record and keeping a positive attitude, as Cutler showed with this quote from an interview after being diagnosed "People have a lot of problems out there. It's as hard as you make it. If you have a positive attitude and you go about it the right way, it's not that bad."
Other athletes with diabetes:
Wasim Akram (cricket player)
Arthur Ashe (tennis star)
Scott Dunton (surfer)
Bobby Clarke (hockey player)
Ty Cobb (baseball player)
Chris Dudley (basketball player
Curt Frasier (hockey player)
Kelli Kuehne (golfer)
Calvin Muhammed (football player)
Wade Wilson (football player)
Historical figures with diabetes
Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the USSR and a Nobel Peace Prize winner manages his type 2 diabetes with medication.Paul Cezanne, the famous French Post-Impressionist painter expressed himself through his masterful paintings throughout his life.
Leonard Thompson, a Torontonian, was 14 in 1922 when he became the very first person in the world to receive an insulin injection.
Other historical figures with diabetes:
Winnie Mandela (South African Anti-Apartheid leader and former wife of Nelson Mandela)
King Fahd (King of Saudi Arabia)
Ray Kroc (McDonald’s founder)
Ernest Hemingway (Famous writer)
Mario Puzo (Author of The Godfather)
Anne Rice (Interview With a Vampire author)