This July, Doug Masiuk will begin his historic journey to become the first Type-1 diabetic to run all the way across the United States. Doug and his non-profit organization, 1Run.org, will fight diabetes by using the run to educate Americans about taking that first step toward healthier living and thwarting this epidemic, which is projected to afflict 1 out 3 people living in the U.S. by 2050.

I’m Doug and I’ve had diabetes since I was three. In less than a month, I’m going to start running from San Francisco and four months later I’ll be putting my feet in the Atlantic on the coast of New York. As the first Type-1 diabetic to run across the U.S., I’m terribly proud that Whole Foods Market is sponsoring me and my organization, 1Run.org.

Twenty-eight million Americans suffer from diabetes. Another 35% of adults over 20 years old in the U.S. are pre-diabetic. And those numbers are growing by the minute. Can you imagine a world where one out of every three of us has diabetes? That will be a reality in 2050 if we continue down this road. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

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