Simeon King is a man on a mission, setting his sights on going across the country for a cause near and dear to him.
The 22-year-old was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was just 11 years old. Now, after living with it for half his life, he's cycling 7,500 kilometres over 81 days across Canada to raise $100,000 for I Challenge Diabetes, a charitable organization with the goal of helping people overcome health challenges related to the disease.
"The Cycle for Type 1 is really just stemming from a deep conviction and my personal belief to connect people all across the country and to show what can be possible when we work together and get behind something that's bigger than ourselves," King told simplymastery. When I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, I felt very alone in some of my struggles. And so I always had this idea to do something to show what can be done if we work together and with determination and a bit of courage."
The Lac La Biche, Alta., native unofficially started his journey, Mile Zero he called it, on Friday, May 30 when he cycled from Victoria to the ferry terminal to head to Vancouver. On Sunday, June 1, King and I Challenge Diabetes hosted an event at Mount Seymour Regional Park to kick off the challenge, which he started the following morning. Throughout the journey, he has 14 stops/days off scheduled so he can host other events can bring awareness to his mission. His stop in Kelowna on Friday, June 6 was the first official stop after completing the first 530 kilometres of his journey.
"It's been a really, really incredible journey," said King. "Lots of challenges along the way, especially managing my diabetes just with turning back my insulin so that I'm not going low, treating low blood sugars on the road, always constantly having to monitor my blood sugar. So that's definitely been one of the challenges that I'm going to have to learn how to manage along the way."
King added there's been other challenges he's encountered early on in his travels.
"When you're in the middle of an 800-metre climb and you feel like you're going nowhere, it feels like your tires are flat, you're not moving anywhere, and you have those moments like 'I have a full country to go across,' like, this is really, really challenging," said King. "You just have to shift your focus to the next turn, the next sign, the next town, the next pedal stroke, right?"
The plan is for King to make stops in Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Markham, Kingston, Montreal, Quebec City, Fredericton, Moncton, Charlottetown, and St. John's along the way and he said having these events are good checkpoints.
"Having people behind me to support that is incredible, and the amount of people that have reached out and have been encouraging me and supporting me along the way has been great, but also having these community events planned out is an easy way to kind of break it down so that it doesn't seem so daunting when I think about the entirety of the trip."
Inspiration from a Canadian Hero
King has always wanted to do some sort of physical challenge to raise awareness and also connect with people across the country. But the turning point was around three years ago, when he was watching a video about a Canadian legend.
"I've always had this dream of being able to cycle across Canada, and the moment that I decided to fully commit, I was watching a video on my phone about Terry Fox, the greatest Canadian of all time," said King. "His story was just absolutely incredible, and to think about the adversity that he's gone through and the impact that he was able to make in his short life really inspired me to take that leap of faith... look at the impact that he's made."
Fox, of course attempted 'The Marathon of Hope', where he tried to run across Canada while battling Canada at 22 years old.
"The part of his story that I want to share with people is the impact that you can make, even though you feel insignificant as one person, you can start a movement and inspire others to inspire other people, and Terry is a fantastic example of that," King added. "Seeing that story really just inspired me to just commit to this and try my best to serve people. I'm such a big believer that we all have a purpose to serve other people and that was kind of the moment for me to dive headfirst into it."
Feeling alone
Growing up in the small town of Lac La Biche, King said he felt isolated growing up and couldn't connect with people about his disease.
"I felt very alone in my struggles, and although there's over 300,000 people living with Type 1 diabetes in Canada and it's a very prevalent condition, it still feels very, very isolating," said King, who made to make the two and a half hour drive from Lac La Biche to Edmonton many times for treatment in his life.
It wasn't until King learned about I Challenge Diabetes when he started to feel seen, being connected with people with similar experiences.
"When I finally built the courage to go to one of the I Challenge Diabetes events, that was my first time connecting with people, and that was incredibly powerful for me, knowing that I'm not alone in this," added King.
And that meeting is what King is bringing into his journey.
"Part of my mission is to show others that we're all in this together," said King. "At the end of the day, we have to be there to support each other, so that was a defining moment for me, being a part of that program from I Challenge Diabetes, meeting other people, and my life has been much different ever since then just because I know that there's other people going through the same thing."
Those interested in King's journey and/or donating can follow the adventure along on the Cycle for Type 1 website and Instagram page.
"I really just wanted to bring Canada together, and regardless if you're living with type 1 diabetes or not, I can almost promise you that somebody you know or somebody you care about is living with Type 1 diabetes or any chronic illness, and it's incredibly important to get behind this together because Canada is much stronger when we work together, and I want everybody to be a part of this incredible journey."
