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Meeting Life Head On – David’s Story
I first met David when he attended one of our monthly dive club meetings. The Pacific Northwest Scuba Challenge is a unique dive club in that it has people with and without disabilities as its members. When I noticed David, I didn’t notice that he had a disability. It wasn’t until his companion helped him get seated that I realized he was blind. I must admit this did strike me as a little strange, that someone who was blind would want to scuba dive, but later in our relationship, when I really got to know him and realized his unique perspective on life, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
I learned he had been born with type 1 diabetes. From an early age, David was told that he had to be very careful with his diet. He also told me that he was a very willful child, and as a teenager he ate whatever he wanted without following the advice about healthy eating. As a result, his unmanaged diabetes led to the loss of his sight. David’s experience, coupled with my own knowledge of diabetes, really reinforced in me the importance of a healthy lifestyle in combating disease.
Some people with mobility impairments such as my own (paraplegia) tend to be much less active than they might like to be, and rely on fast foods that have a lot of sugar and fat. This kind of a lifestyle can lead to the onset of type 2 diabetes and can have serious implications for peoples’ health. I moved to another city and the two of us lost touch. His story really touched me though; his incredible attitude has always been an inspiration, and his story a very dramatic and cautionary tale.
Miles Stratholt
Victoria British Columbia
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