“Mr. Diabetes” begins final leg of awareness walk
Andrew Mandell, a 61 year-old type 1 diabetic known as “Mr. Diabetes”, has surpassed the 7000 mile mark on his quest to walk the periphery of the continental United States, in order to raise awareness and research money in the fight against diabetes.
Begun in Florida in 2002, Mandell’s Wake Up & Walk Tour has taken Mandell across the Gulf Coast, along the southern U.S. border to San Diego, up the west coast to Seattle and across the northern border. He spent the winter in Buffalo, New York (where I assume diabetics aren’t alone in not being able to feel their extremities) and as of today could be found in Vermont.
“The walk began with a 450 mile trial walk in Florida. In January 2002 I picked up where I left off. So far, as of today, I’ve walked about 7,140 plus miles, to round it off. Yesterday I walked into Vermont. New York was a very tedious state and I’m happy to be here,” said Mandell.
During his walk, Mandell has worn through seventeen pairs of shoes and has met over 40,000 people. Even though he has difficulty feeling his feet and legs, he doesn’t let that stop him from achieving his goals. Part of his mission is to demonstrate that through maintaining their health, eating properly and staying active, diabetics can lead normal lives.
“In order for me to be doing what I’m doing - I’m a senior citizen and an insulin-dependent diabetic, and I’m doing this extreme thing - I have to have all three of those things in balance. It just goes to show that we are not helpless, we are not hopeless, we can do anything that anybody else can do. This is an extreme way of demonstrating it but it needed to be done.”
(via Wake Up & Walk tour)
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