The Taunton, Mass.-based group, which has garnered mainly regional media attention, is hoping to broaden into a national campaign.

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The Brewers were prepared to sign Covey in spite of the diagnosis, Covey’s father, Darrell Covey, tells USA Today. The news came as a shock, Darrell Covey also said, adding that none of Covey’s relatives have had diabetes for generations.

The diagnosis helps explain a slump Covey experienced late last season, Covey said in the Baseball Beginnings interview. There had been rumors that Covey suffered a shoulder injury, but now he suspects diabetes played a role. Indeed, the Brewers physical gave Covey a clean bill of health excluding the diabetes diagnosis.

Covey talked with Toronto pitcher Brandon Morrow, who also has type 1, on Sunday night, before making the decision to stay amateur, he also said in the interview.

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Jerry Douthett, 48, of Rockford had been unaware of his type-2 diabetes and had put off medical treatment for the toe’s festering condition, according to an account in the Grand Rapids Press. As he slept in a drunken stupor, Douthett’s terrier, Kiko, gnawed off most of his right big toe, apparently detecting the infection’s odor.

Douthett finally did go to the hospital when he came to, alerting doctors to his dangerously high blood-sugar level of 560. Surgeons then amputated the remainder of the toe.

Following the initial press account, Douthett had been inundated with interview requests from around the world, including the U.K.’s Telegraph. Douthett is now on diabetes medication, and Kiko is home after a stint with county officials to ensure he had not contracted rabies.

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Tatum, who had diabetes and lost part of his leg due to amputation because of the disease’s complications, started an organization in Ohio to help raise money for diabetes research. He died of a heart attack.

However, Tatum will always be remembered in the public’s consciousness for his 1978 preseason hit on Darryl Stingley of the Patriots, who was confined to a wheelchair for the last three decades of his life before his death at the age of 55 years old. The two men have been linked ever since, even though they never spoke or reconciled after the incident. Tatum said he tried to apologize but was kept away by Stingley’s family.

Although it was a helmet-to-helmet hit, the kind that is outlawed today, it was well within the rules at the time. Tatum did not receive a penalty for the hit.  

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Federal funding of the Special Diabetes Program is approaching a major crossroads. Funding for the program first went into effect in 1998 and is set to expire in September 2011. Under a new bill, which must be passed for funding to continue, $1 billion would be allocated each to Type 1 diabetes research and Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes treatment and prevention programs for Native Americans.

The program, which supports major clinical trials of drugs and treatments as well as preventative programs, has not received an increase in funding in six years.

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Nate Newton, a former offensive lineman with the Super Bowl winning Cowboys of the 1990s, underwent a vertical sleeve gastrectomy in later April. the procedure removed a large portion of his stomach and he has since dropped 133 pounds and sent his diabetes into remission. Newton, who had weighed  396 pounds, is down to 263. His goal is to get down to 235 pounds.

Newton drew motivation from his father’s death and realized he wanted to be around to watch his pre-teenage son grow up.

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Michaels, who has suffered from a number of serious health issues this year and also won this season’s Celebrity Apprentice, is the first person to win the award. It is designed to recognize and individual, organization or company that help advance the ADA’s mission.

Michaels appeared at the finale of the Celebrity Apprentice despite suffering an emergency appendectomy, a brain hemorrhage, a stroke and finding out he has a hole in his heart in the month leading up the live finale. On the show, which was filmed in the Fall of 2009 with the exception of the live finale, Michaels won $390,000 for the ADA and the organization’s summer camps for kids with diabetes.

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Santo developed Type 1 diabetes at the age of 18 and kept it a secret for part of his playing career due to fear it may impact the way people viewed him. He is now dealing with complications associated with the disease, including the amputation of both legs. Recently, he passed out from unexpectedly low blood sugar levels.

Santo, now 70 years old, said he will skip an upcoming a trip to Seattle and will limit his travel to cities in the National League Central next season. However, he will make appearances on the team’s pregame show via telephone.

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DNH: You were diagnosed with Type 1 at age 19, so you were a little too old to attend the summer camps for kids with diabetes. (Kris is visiting 14 summer camps from June 9 – Aug. 18 on a tour sponsored by Eli Lilly) So tell me how you got involved with the camps?

Freeman: One of the very first things I was told was what I couldn’t do, which was that I couldn’t continue on my Olympic path. That was really hard for me. I wish that I had never gotten that message. My passion for doing these camps is to go out and spread a positive message that kids can go after any aspirations they might have.

DNH: I think a lot of kids with diabetes are told that they are not suited for endurance sports. Do you feel like you are breaking that mold?

Freeman: For sure. At the time I was diagnosed no one had ever competed at the Olympic levels in an endurance event. So, it was kind of assumed that it couldn’t be done. I have done it now so obviously it is possible and I look forward to seeing other diabetics break down similar doors.

DNH: When you were first diagnosed, was there a celebrity or athlete or person in your family with Type 1 that you drew inspiration from?

Freeman: Right after being diagnosed, I was absolutely crushed and quite scared of the situation. The way I like to deal with anything I’m scared of is to learn as much as I can about it. The very first thing that gave me encouragement was that I learned how much how much better technology and treatments for diabetes had become in the last several decades. It’s light years ahead of where it used to be. That was the very first thing that made me think that what I want to do is possible.

Then reading about Gary Hall Jr. was definitely an inspiration to me. He’s an Olympic Gold Medalist in the spring event. I thought if he could do it in sprint, I could find a way to do it.

DNH: I know a lot went into developing your training and in-race blood sugar management. As you note, this had never been done before. So, where did you start?

Freeman: The first thing I had to do was find a doctor that believed in me. I found one who was actually the USC Team physician – his name is Larry Gaul. He was the first doctor that I worked with closely on it. He was pretty cautious, but he was never afraid to try something new, which I think is really important. We did a lot of time trials and a lot of practice. It was a lot of trial and error, trying to figure out what insulin doses work for different distances, what dosage worked for training and of course monitoring my hemoglobin A1C and making sure I was staying within healthy levels. With his guidance I had an average A1C of 5.6.

I returned to racing relatively quickly after being diagnosed. Everything wasn’t perfect, but on the full, it was positive.

DNH: If you weren’t skiing, what would you be doing right now?

Freeman: I’d probably be going to school. To pursue the Olympic Dream I stopped going to the University of Vermont my freshman year. I’ve been a profession ski racer for the past 10 years. I definitely intend to go back and get a BA and maybe a Master’s degree in Psychology.

DNH: What is the most difficult experience you’ve had during your training?

Freeman: It’s a constant balancing act – going from country to country. A lot of my teammates can easily adapt without having to think about their insulin dosage or whatever weird food we might be served. For me, sometimes it’s just accumulated stress.

DNH: The last Olympics didn’t turn out quite as you had hoped. You lost a few minutes off your time during your second race and pulled out of your final race, which was the longest. I know you are a competitive guy. Which was more disappointing to you?

Freeman:  Those were both tough moments. The race that I dropped out of – that was a planned occurrence. Basically when I had the hypoglycemic episode in the 30k, I got back up and I kept going. That was an incredibly stressful thing to do to my body. I hadn’t fully recovered by the time we came around to the 50k. My coaches told me that if it looks like I was suffering, that I was not staying with the leaders, that they wanted to pull me out to salvage the rest of my season so I could keep on racing in Europe after the Olympics. They just didn’t see the point of suffering through that race. So when I dropped out, I got a signal from my coach, which made it not my decision a little bit. It made it a little easier.

The 30k was definitely the harder of the two because I was feeling great until I had the hypoglycemic episode. So, for sure, the 30k was harder to take. At the same time it was nice to know that even when the absolute worst happens I was still able to get up and finish.

DNH: Cross country skiing not only tests you endurance within each race, but also within a season because you have many competitions over the course of several months.

Freeman: Yes, I pretty much drained all glycogen stores when I had that low blood sugar. It takes weeks to rebuild that. I only had several days before the next race. So, we knew that having a great race only four days after having a terrible low was not likely.    

DNH: So what’s next for Kris Freeman after the tour of the camps?

Freeman: On July 18 I’m flying down to New Zealand. I’ll be there for three weeks training hard on snow. When I get back really focused training starts and its about 3-4 months before I go off to the World Cup in November.

DNH: I’ve got diabetes and I know that sometimes things impact your blood sugar levels in ways you do not expect. Does the high altitude when skiing impact your sugar levels?

Freeman: Absolutely, I’m not totally sure of the sciences behind it, but for whatever reason, going to a high altitude makes me less insulin sensitive. So, I have to increase my basal rate. My body tends to adapt to it after 3 or 4 days and then my basal rates go back down to normal. But, whatever stress is happening to your body due to the pressure changes, in my body at least, makes me less insulin sensitive. It’s something I have to be very aware of when I’m travelling.    

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