Yellowknife (May 05/04) - It's not so much a "sneaky" way to raise money, but if you can't be part of the annual Walk to Cure diabetes fund raiser, you can buy paper sneakers instead.

The sneakers are being sold for one dollar each and are available at Shoppers Drug Mart, CIBC, BMO, Kingland Ford, Essentials, Top of the World Travel and NorthwesTel Cable.

As for the Walk, it's June 6 -- starting with a noon barbecue in front of the Legislature Building. Walkers take off at 1:30 p.m. for one-, three- or five-kilometre distances.

A half-million North Americans die each year from diabetes and related complications, says Mike Dittrich. Mike and his wife Lee-Anne are family co-chairs of this year's Walk to Cure fundraising event.

The walk is put on throughout Canada by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Diabetics' bodies don't produce insulin, a necessary hormone. They must inject it daily. One possible treatment is to transplant cells that produce insulin into diabetics. This is not without complications.

"The problem is that they have to introduce foreign insulin-producing cells," Dittrich said.

This is a problem for young people because it is hard for their bodies to accept cells from other people, says Dittrich.

The latest research is focusing on creating cells that won't be rejected by the body, Dittrich says.