Bob Heyer is an extreme athlete and a diabetic.

"In the 26 years that I've had this disease, I've never spent one night in the hospital because of my Diabetes," said Heyer.

But the years of needles and blood tests do take an emotional toll. That's why he is always searching for news of a breakthrough.

"It really helps encourage a diabetic whether we've had it 2 years or 10 years or 20 years, 50 years even," said Heyer. "The idea that there is a cure and someone is looking to find one."

Dr. William Hagopian of the Pacific Northwest Research Institute is trying to stop Diabetes, but he's fighting on a new front. He wants to knock out Type One Diabetes before it takes hold in children.

New tests are putting researchers a step ahead of the disease.

"We can identify among those kids those that are at about 50 percent risk of future diabetes, which is pretty high risk," said Dr. Hagopian.

The next step would be to find a drug that can keep the body's immune system from triggering the disease in the first place.

"Rather than one big breakthrough, there is probably 10 little breakthroughs that are necessary to cure Type One Diabetes," said Dr. Hagopian. "We've probably done 3 or 4 of them or 5, and have 5 more to go,"

So for researchers like Hagopian, the focus is now prevention for kids and a cure for adults.

"Having that hope is something to look forward to and it helps you live with the condition every day," said Heyer.

And Heyer is not letting one day go to waste.