Sometimes, it is those hard life lessons that jolt us to change our ways.
That is what renowned singer and songwriter Dan Hill, a goodwill ambassador for the Canadian Diabetes Association, is advocating.
Hill, 56, has type 2 diabetes,a disease that is partly genetic, but a poor lifestyle consisting of a bad diet and no exercise can also spark it, leading to kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, amputations and an early death.
Hill's father and grandfather also had type 2 diabetes. But his father, a former director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, didn't heed warnings to control the disease with diet and medications. The disease forced him to have both legs amputated and led to an early death.
"They call it the silent killer because you don't feel your pancreas, your liver, kidneys, slowly breaking down" Hill told CTV's Avis Favaro.
"It was a double jolt for me. The jolt of seeing my father slowly die, the jolt of knowing that I was diabetic and could meet the same fate if I didn't take care of myself," Hill said.
There are millions of Canadians thought to be at risk of type 2 diabetes because of poor lifestyle and diet. A report from the National Diabetes Surveillance System says that by 2012, almost 2.8 million Canadians will be living with diagnosed diabetes. That works out to an estimated increase of about six per cent a year, and an overall increase of about 25 per cent from 2007, mostly from type 2.
Being on the road for 14 years also took a toll on Hill before his diagnosis; he was overworked and overweight. But after seeing his father suffer with the disease, it set him on a new path to become more diligent about his health.
The singer now takes up to five blood tests a day to monitor the sugar levels in his blood, and takes medication and insulin injections religiously each night.
"I don't want to lose my legs, you know. I don't want to be wheeled around in a wheelchair. I don't want to be attached to a catheter. I saw all that stuff happen to my father and as much as it upset me because I loved my father so much, it also really traumatized me," said Hill.
He has also embraced a healthy lifestyle prescribed to his father and now runs about 12 kilometres at a time, most days of the week.
"I never go on a run when I don't think of my dad, where I don't think about how powerful his legs were and what happened because unfortunately, he didn't take care of himself," Hill explained.
Hill calls his diabetes a kind of blessing, turning his life around and giving him a voice to help others do the same.
"I just want people to know they are the masters of their own fortune and misfortune. A lot of us think that doctors and drugs are going to control and help us but the reality is we're our own best doctor," Hill advised.
With a report from CTV's Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
