BOSTON -- On the court, last June marked a highlight in Ray Allen’s NBA career, as the Boston Celtics returned to glory by winning the 2008 NBA Championship.

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However during the final two games of the series, Allen was dealing with a crisis that threatened his young son’s life.

“He threw up and we thought he was just jet lagged,” said Allen, of his now-22-month-old son Walker, “because it was a long flight and you know, maybe he had the flu."

But doctors in Los Angeles, where the Celtics were playing the Lakers, determined it was something much more serious than the flu.

“When she said, he has diabetes, my heart sunk," said Allen.

That diagnosis came the same morning as Allen and his teammates were to play game number five of the NBA Championship series.

“You know that whole day was a wash for me because I was just worried about him because I just wanted to get to the hospital," Allen said.

“The scary thing about type 1 [diabetes] is that it masquerades itself like flu symptoms,” said Shannon Allen, Ray’s wife and Walker’s mom.

“Frequent thirst, excessive urination, excessive eating, lethargy, feeling tired, looking drawn, and then vomiting. The vomiting actually happens when a child enters DKA or having ketoacidosis, which is actually poison in your blood,” said Shannon.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body’s failure to produce insulin, which means constant monitoring of one’s food intake.

“From the moment he wakes up in the morning until he goes to bed at night, we have to monitor every single thing that goes into his mouth,” said Shannon. “We have to test him 10 times a day. And then we adjust him with actual insulin injections. On an average day, he could go between three to five insulin injections, to being pricked 10 times a day."

"It's very scary, there's a huge learning curve,” said Shannon. “It's been a challenge, but we're figuring it out every day as we go along."

The Celtics star admits his family lives a pretty healthy lifestyle, and treats are almost always sugar-free. But that doesn’t necessarily stop this exuberant 22-month-old from finding sweets.

One time, Allen said, “He had a bunch of M&Ms all over his mouth, and he just had sugar, chocolate all over the place, and of course, his levels were through the roof and we had to correct them."

"Walkie," as he is affectionately called, will be insulin dependent for the rest of his life, or until a cure is found. Helping researchers achieve that goal is something to which both Allen and his wife have now dedicated their lives.

“Being on this world stage, we said, ‘Why is this happening? Wow, God works in mysterious ways,’” said Allen. “It’s like, he put this on our plate at this point in time in my life. He’s giving me this mantle to step up and be somewhat of a flagship for this disease and making sure other families understand and know what they're going through, make sure kids aren't misdiagnosed, make sure no child has to die because they are misdiagnosed."

Shannon has become actively involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, even raising $40,000 during last month's fundraising walk in Boston.