The first man with Type 1 diabetes to swim the English Channel is Scott Coleman, who performed this feat in August 1996.
He was 42 years old when he did this in 60-degree water for 21 miles from Dover, England to Cap Gris-Nez, France.
His time for this event was 10 hours of grueling physical labor.
Scott had already had diabetes for 7 years before he plunged into the English Channel.
Now think about this feat for just a moment.
As a diabetic, you may already be suffering from peripheral neuropathy where your nerves are deposited with blood sugar which prevents them from acting as they should.
You may have pain sensations, hot or cold sensations or even the sensations of ants crawling on your feet and lower extremities.
We don't know for sure Scott Coleman had peripheral neuropathy but a diabetic usually has the start of this for years prior to symptoms manifesting.
So he's potentially got peripheral neuropathy and now he submerges himself in 60-degree Fahrenheit water.
That's awfully cold water and the body will try to keep itself warm by pulling the circulation to the internal organs, away from the extremities.
This is what he had to deal with while he was in the water.
Luckily, Scott had met Allison Streeter who had swum the English Channel 33 times.
Scott worked with Allison's trainer, Mike Oram, who wouldn't take a dime for the job.
Scott's workout included weight lifting, swimming, and long ocean swims.
But to qualify, he would have to do a 6-hour swim in 60-degree water and have a doctor on board during the swim.
Scott surrounded himself with successful English channel swimmers, eating meals with them and sometimes training with them.
On the day of the race, his team used the Accu-Check Advantage System glucometer and they were prepared.
They also had glucagons kits just in case of diabetic emergency.
They didn't depend on only one of these glucometers, but had four of them in case there was equipment failure.
They tested his blood sugar every 2 hours for the first 6 hours and then every half hour after that.
After hour 4 in the English channel, Scott's team couldn't get any blood out of his finger for the finger prick test.
There were a few big problems with taking the blood sugar readings.
First of all, whenever Scott stopped swimming for the tests, the act of starting swimming again would make him have to get back on the right course.
So essentially he was losing time every time he stopped.
Secondly, the water was so cold that to prevent hypothermia, his body was pulling blood from the extremities.
This made it difficult to get the blood glucose test done.
He also couldn't straighten his fingers around the fourth hour.
At the sixth hour, low blood sugar set in.
With an injection of glucagon, though, he was back swimming.
During hour 7, he was feeling the cold.
Putting his hands in hot water seemed to help but when he poured it over his head, that was even better.
Between hours 8 and 9, he wanted to give up.
Without any feeling in your arm, it's a little difficult to swim.
But besides that, he felt as if he wasn't any closer to France and was starting to hallucinate.
Imagine swimming for 10-1/2 hours and then your coach says it's time to sprint.
If they didn't speed up, the tide would come in against them and prolong the time in the water by up to three hours! Luckily for Scott, another swimmer got in the water with him to act as a motivating buddy.
Scott Coleman had swam for 11 hours and 54 minutes.
And all that exertion caused him to lose 15 pounds.
Says Scott Coleman in 1993 to Florida Gold Coast LMSC Newsletter: "Set your goals high.
You can achieve them if you believe in yourself and don't quit.
When I began competitive swimming in eighth grade, I was struck by a newspaper clipping which was glued on my coach's door.
"Nothing is impossible," it read.
My swim just reaffirms it.
"