Canyon brings a special message to town

The News
TRENTON - It's the hardest lesson for a child to learn - that they 'can't' do something for reasons beyond their control.
For children who develop juvenile onset diabetes (Type-1), it is particularly discouraging.
Pictou County country musician George Canyon, whose ever-extending list of accomplishments now includes honourary air force colonel and licensed pilot, has unlearned the lesson.
He's hoping that children with the very same condition he developed as a child will unlearn it too.
Yesterday, he taxied down the runway at the Trenton Airport and performed the final show of a 10-day, 16-stop tour. Dubbed, The Sky is not the Limit, it was a performance for a select crowd of youngsters with Type-1 diabetes and their families.
His arrival carried the excitement and pomp which often accompanies celebrity.
But for these latest shows, the spectacle presented a message to the star-struck kids staring back at the 38-year-old Canyon.
He puts it like this:
"It's to say, 'hey, look at this guy. He's taking care of his diabetes and he's living his dreams. And that's a really important part, in my opinion, of being a Type-1 Juvenile onset kid."
The show itself was informal. Canyon spoke with the crowd in breaks between songs and talked about some of the tools he uses to manage diabetes, namely an insulin pump developed by Animas Canada.
"The pump is allowing me to have control that's beyond the conventional methods of treating diabetes. It's allowed me freedoms beyond the conventional methods of treating diabetes," he said.
That treatment, and by taking care of himself, Canyon said he's experienced a quality of life he couldn't have dreamed to have when he was younger.
He said he understands how children with Type-1 diabetes are ostracized because of their condition.
"I refer to this today as a box getting built around the child. And the box is very small - and kids feel that," he said. "There's a lot of can'ts, a lot of nos and a lot of don'ts."
"This is all about making Type-1 kids feel important, feel special, feel non-ostracized."