More than 9 million Canadians live with diabetes.
It's a serious disease but with careful, lifelong management, doctors say suffers can live active lives.
One of those people is Ernie Whelan, a soldier with the Canadian Forces.
The search and rescue diver was diagnosed three years ago and is now fighting the disease and its misconceptions.
Precious time with family is what the 39 year old missed while trekking across Lake Winnipeg for a week.
It was a personal mission, since he was diagnosed with diabetes in 2007.
"To prove to the general public that diabetics are not condemned to a certain kind of life," said Whelan.
He's a paramedic, a soldier and most recently a diver for the Canadian Forces Search and Rescue Team, but three years ago that all changed.
"My vision started to blur and I have really good eyesight, and that kind of scared me," he recalled the first signs of diabetes.
He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and removed from his job as a SAR Tec.
"I wasn't allowed to fly, I wasn't allowed to dive, when I say dive I mean scuba dive, I wasn't allowed to jump out of the aircraft, I wasn't allowed to be an operational SAR Tec at that point, so from there I was behind a desk," Whelan said.
Losing his dream job gave Whelan the motivation to prove he can still do anything and hopefully change misconceptions about the disease.
"You ask five different people they'll give you five different reason what diabetes is and how it affects people and that's just because people in general are not educated on it," he said
So he took a week long trek across Lake Winnipeg to raise awareness and money for diabetes research. He endured the elements and numerous challenges.
At one point, Whelan lost all communication, then his stoves broke but the - 40 degree weather was by far the toughest.
"You could see the shoreline disappear and after it disappeared I was engulfed into a white out condition to where I had no reference, I had no shoreline," recalled Whelan.
On the fifth day, with family and friends cheering him on, Whelan completed his mission.
"Diabetics can do just about anything that some one with no condition can do," he said.
Proving what he already knew, and now hoping others will believe the same.
Whelan raised more than $5,800 for the Diabetes Association. He plans to make the Gliding Thru Barriers trek an annual event and grow it to include other participants.
For more information, or to help Whelan cause, you can click here.
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