dLife’s editorial staff, which presents valuable information about diabetes through television, radio, web, and print, combined their diabetes knowledge to offer a list of nominees representing those in America who inspired, motivated and improved the lives of people with diabetes. Thousands voted online to whittle the nominee list down to the final award winners.

The runaway winner at number 1 was college basketball superstar, Adam Morrison. Morrison, projected by many to be the number 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft, was the nation’s leading scorer during the 2005-2006 college basketball season, all the while publicly managing his diabetes by openly testing his blood sugars and injecting insulin courtside. Morrison’s public acknowledgment of his chronic disease helped make it very clear that people with diabetes can take control of their condition and not only achieve success in life, but also achieve greatness.

“Some days the sugars are up and down and your body just doesn’t feel right but it’s no excuse,” says Morrison. “You gotta just go out there and give it 110 percent, even though you don’t feel well.” Apparently this message has resonated as dramatically within the diabetes community as his athletic skills on the court have resonated within the sports community.

Internationally famous business leader Lee Iacocca was also a hit with voters. Through JoinLeeNow, the fund-raising arm of The Iacocca Foundation, founded in honor of his wife Mary Iacocca whose death was due to complications of type1 diabetes, more than $9 million was raised to support promising research for a diabetes cure.

Approaching diabetes from an entirely different direction, the two young sons of Alonzo Washington, creator/publisher of OMEGA MAN comics, followed heroically in their father’s footsteps. Kamaal (10) and Malcolm (8) were inspired to create a story about Omega Boy and Doctor Diabetes after Kamaal was diagnosed with the disease. “Kamal and his brother wanted to do something to bring more awareness to the illness,” says their dad, Alonzo Washington. “They have been begging me for years to publish one of their characters. When they told me that they wanted to use Omega Boy to address diabetes, how could I say no?” The 18-page comic has attracted interest from various media outlets as well as various diabetes organizations. Keeping the ball rolling, Kamaal plans to do a national tour to help children afflicted with the illness.

The other winners are nurse/educator KC Arnold, who distributed diabetes supplies to Hurricane Katrina victims; the Children With Diabetes quilt, a project that tells the life stories of children with diabetes; Jay Leeuwenburg and Denny Dressman, authors of the book Yes I Can! Yes You Can!, a chronicle of Jay’s struggle to balance his diabetes with his 9-year professional football career, the Asian outreach program at The Joslin Diabetes Center, a model bilingual program, Maurice Madden, whose film “The Debilitator” educates the African-American community about diabetes, Bernard Siegel, whose work on behalf of the diabetes community promotes an open debate on stem cell research and Kendall Simmons of the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers for his work helping kids with diabetes.

“The range of winners provides some real insight into just how widely the diabetes epidemic impacts our society,” says Howard Steinberg, the CEO and Founder of LifeMed Media, parent company of dLife, who lives with type 1 diabetes. “And perhaps more importantly, the variety of winners demonstrates how people of all ages and backgrounds are learning to take control of diabetes and lead incredibly successful and satisfying lives.”

About LifeMed Media and dLife
LifeMed Media is the first multimedia healthcare communications company created to serve chronic disease populations. Its flagship venture, dLife—For Your Diabetes Life!, is the first integrated media network targeting the estimated 21 million people living with diabetes and their caregivers, families, friends, and those at risk of developing diabetes—some 80 million in all. dLife provides knowledge, insight, advice and inspiration to this group through dLifeTV, dLife.com, dLifeRadio, and dLifeConnect.

For further information please contact Tom Karlya @ 203-221-3453 or karlya@dlife.com. You can also visit our website as www.dlife.com.

Available graphics: dLife logo, Omego Boy comic book cover, Adam Morrison action shot.