Mike Crowley gripped the handlebars as he prepared to start his ride in Death Valley, CA. His support letter raising funds for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation had a special request, “Pray for a cool day.”

Unfortunately, sometimes God has a sense of humor and the mid-October day was 109 degrees when the Waukesha man was set to bike 105 miles to raise funds and awareness to find a cure for type 1 diabetes, which his son, Andy, was diagnosed with at age 2.

“I wouldn’t have done that just to do it,” Crowley said. “I had his picture on my handlebars, and I also had his picture behind me so people riding behind me could see who I was riding for.

“The picture in front of me, every time I was having a moment of not feeling like I could do it, I would look back at the picture, and I would talk to him. That is why he inspired me to get up the mountain, which was very difficult, and I did it.”

Waukesha Patch asked the community who has inspired them and who made a difference in their life in 2010. Crowley nominated Andy, who has learned to keep his diabetes under control by establishing a routine.

Andy, a 14-year-old freshman at Waukesha North High School, received a $25 gift card to Gander Mountain.

“It was hard when I was younger, when I first had it,” Andy said. “But then, after a couple of years, it got easier. It affects you, but you are more used to it than you were.”

Andy said the disease doesn’t cause him to stand out in school as others have juvenile diabetes.

Juvenile diabetes is rare, but it is prevalent in southeast Wisconsin, Crowley said.

“We are hoping we find out why, but more importantly, how we can cure it and prevent complications,” Crowley said. “That is what we raise the money for, for diabetes research to find a cure and to cure the complications.”

The hardest part about having the disease is watching what he eats and not going out of control, Andy said.

“You have to watch your blood sugar, and you have to pay attention to what you are doing,” Andy said.

Andy, when asked what he would do to encourage others his age with diabetes, said he would say, “just keep trying to do a good job with managing it.”

“Just pretend like it is not really there but pay attention to it,” Andy said.

Andy developed the disease when he was still a toddler, but Crowley said he does a good job at managing his diabetes.

Andy is insulin dependent, meaning he needs to take shots of insulin each day to stay alive. The family has calculated that he has taken more than 12,000 insulin shots and had his finger pricked more than 26,000 times.

“If he were to go a day with no insulin, he would probably die,” Crowley said. “It is that serious.”

Andy’s routine and skill at managing his insulin dependency has helped, because he has not developed complications that can come with diabetes.

“The complications are scary to even talk about, blindness, kidney disease, heart disease, stroke, amputation, all of that is a possibility,” Crowley said. "How we deal with it is we could end up with any of that during our lifetime and our life can change in a minute, so we don’t dwell on it and we don’t think about it.

“We just do what we can to manage the diabetes as best as possible, and he does a really good job with that.”