Michael King, wife Sheila go extra mile to fight Type 1 diabetes

SAN DIEGO -- As a young pitcher coming up in the Yankees organization, Michael King knew he wanted to use his platform to make a difference.

He just wasn’t sure exactly how. Or what for. Until he met his wife, Sheila.

"CC Sabathia was huge in the community," King said. "[Aaron] Judge put so much into the All Rise Foundation. I saw guys ahead of me using their platform for good. I wanted to do something that hit home, but also I wanted ... to do something that was really important to me.

"Once I started dating Sheila, I knew what the cause was going to be. I was like, 'All right, we're going to tackle this.'"

Sheila Hill was living in New York City when her father -- the board president of the New York/Long Island chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation -- planned to run the 2018 New York City Marathon. The Hill family was heavily impacted by Type 1 diabetes. Sheila's mother, aunt, cousin and great-grandfather all lived with it.

"It was my dream to run with him to raise money for the cause," Sheila said. "So I did. ... It's a crazy story -- reverse karma, almost."

About a month before the race, Sheila came down with a hip injury. Undeterred, she ran the marathon at less than full strength. And only after receiving a cortisone shot, then another when the first one didn’t take.

The onset of Type 1 diabetes often comes with trigger events. Sheila, with a family history of the disease, was at risk. It’s possible that cortisone injection ended up being her trigger event.

A few months later, Sheila began feeling symptoms. She was spending a weekend with her parents, when her mother tested asked to test her blood sugar levels. They were too high to read on the glucose monitor.

"She had a good cry and knew what I was about to go through, and the diagnosis I was about to have," Sheila said.

Six years later, Sheila Hill is now Sheila King. (She and Michael were married in New York City, a week after he was traded to the Padres in the Juan Soto deal.) She lives with Type 1 diabetes -- and all the challenges that come with it. And, along with Michael, she has made it her mission to eradicate the onset of the disease and the disease itself.

On Thursday, Sheila and Michael will fulfill a longtime dream by launching their charity: The King of the Hill Foundation. They'll do so in a formal event featuring several of King's teammates and other Padres personnel, along with a number of influential leaders in the Type 1 diabetes space.

"Our official kickoff is Thursday -- it's our first chance, announcing our presence in the community," Sheila said recently. "We're so excited. It's a labor of love, of course. It's been a while, and we've envisioned this for a few years. The fact that it's becoming a reality feels a little bit surreal."

Sheila and Michael knew they wanted to launch a foundation to help in the Type 1 diabetes space. They just didn't know exactly how or when. Initially, they planned on waiting until Michael reached free agency, knowing they might be a bit more settled. Then ...

"Then when we got out to San Diego, we realized it's a hub for Type 1 diabetes [research]," Michael said.

Said Sheila: "When we moved out here, it felt like this community is so deeply embedded in Type 1 diabetes and healthcare with Rady [Children's Hospital] and Scripps and all the biotech companies. It kind of felt like we were here for a little bit more than just baseball. So we were like, this feels right. This feels like the right time to do this. It was a natural nudge."

Sheila and Michael King spent hours this summer talking with investors, doctors, researchers and scientists. They wanted to find the area in which their foundation could made the biggest impact.

The feedback they got was clear: They needed focus on the prevention of the onset of Type 1 diabetes. The King of the Hill Foundation will focus on screening, which can detect the antibodies that indicate future onset. And it will focus on research for prevention of that onset.

"We talked to so many people in this space, and they were like we don't want to be another foundation raising money and throwing spaghetti at the wall," Sheila said. "We want to really impact change, and we really think we can impact change. But where can we actually throw meaningful dollars?"

Thursday marks the formal launch of that endeavor. Michael says he plans to use his platform as a Padre for screening events and future fundraising. (He already asked for, and received, an original Dylan Cease -- a painting from his teammate that will be auctioned off at Thursday's event.)

The foundation, Sheila says, is aimed at the future before anything else. Eventually, their kids will likely be high risk. While the industry fights for a cure, prevention will remain key.

“I pray, and Michael prays that there's a cure in our lifetime,” Sheila said. “I live with it. Of course, I hope for that. But I am so passionate about the people behind us. As we think about having kids and our kids' kids, we don't want them to have to deal with a story like mine.”

"I tell her all the time,” said Michael. “I think she's a superhero.”