Charles Ray III is no millionaire sports star and he has no plans to run for governer of Alabama but he does plan to use his likeness to Charles Barkley to raise awarness of diabetes.

Ray, who was in Mobile this week to film a telivision show on his cause, knows first hand with diabetes can do to the body and he has challenged Barkley to help him call attention to it.

"I was 17 and playing basketball at Northside High School in Roanoke, Va., when diabetes struk," Ray said. "i was tired, lost weight and i didn't know what was happening to me."

With the memory in mind, Ray wants to challenge Barkley to a three-point-shooting contest to raise funds for diabetes. Barkley has not said "yes" but he has also not said "no." "I met him recently at a golf tournement im Raliegh and he told me that he appreciates what i am trying to do, "But, then, he didn't promise anything." For more than a year, Ray has promoted awareness of diabetes every chance he gets including filming public-service announcements dressed as a Barkley lookalike, though Ray is 6-4 and 230 pounds and Barkley is 6-6 and 252.

He plans to continue until the millionaire Barkley lends a hand. Ray is a 35-year-old restaurant cook whose mother paid for his expenses to come to mobile to film show that will be shown on WALA-TV at 6a.m. Sunday. "My wife Heather is a diabetic and I do want to help other people who fall victim to the disease," Ray said. "More than half of the people who have diabetes don't even know they have it."

Ray also wants others to react better than he did after learning ha had the disease. "I kept eating cheeseburgers, french fries and sweets and spent most of my time at home watching television and doing nothing to help myself beyond taking prescribed in sulin shots," he said.

by John Cameron, managing Editor
Mobile (ALA) Register May 21,1997