Mission: Riding for a Cure

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  • Rex Covington, a.k.a. the Lone Star Rider, intends to raise $90,000 for diabetes research by riding his 2008 Harley-Davidson across the country. He stopped in Hopkins County Tuesday for a short while. Staff photo by Tammy Vinson
    Rex Covington, a.k.a. the Lone Star Rider, intends to raise $90,000 for diabetes research by riding his 2008 Harley-Davidson across the country. He stopped in Hopkins County Tuesday for a short while. Staff photo by Tammy Vinson
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Man raises money for diabetes research

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Rex Covington is on a mission: to help wipe diabetes off the face of the earth.

To that end, he’s come up with a way to raise money to help fund diabetes research. It came to him in a dream in January 2018. Covington dreamed he rode his motorcycle across the country to raise money—$90,000, in fact—to support diabetes research.

“I wasn’t doing anyone any good,” Covington said. “I was not in a good place.”

In 2015, Covington’s 35-year-old son, Chris, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2003, blacked out due to low blood sugar while driving and was killed when his vehicle crashed. He’d been having diabetic issues in the weeks before the accident. Covington, a retired paramedic, said he spent a lot of time wondering if he could have done something to prevent the accident.

“I realized there wasn’t really anything I could have done to change the outcome, but I could help spread awareness and raise money to cure diabetes,” Covington said. “We just need to cure it—wipe it off the face of the earth.”

The Fort Worth native started his ride June 21, 2018, and by the end of the year, he’d ridden 20,000 miles.

“It was a healing trip for me,” Covington said.

Covington rides alone—just him, his Harley and his custom motorcycle trailer.

“People are just awesome,” Covington said. “They’ll put me up for a night or feed me. I hear lots of stories, and I meet a lot of parents of kids with diabetes.”

He’s already logged 20,000 miles in 2019, and the year isn’t over yet. To date, he’s raised just under $10,000, thanks to donations and sponsorships. He’s partnered with the American Diabetes Association, and all the money he raises goes to help fund research to find a cure.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 30 million Americans have diabetes (basically one out of every 10 people), and 7.2 million (one in four) of those who have it don’t know it. Another 84.1 million Americans are considered pre-diabetic, and nine out of 10 don’t know.

Covington’s next destination is Galveston for the Lone Star Rally, which runs Oct. 31-Nov. 3. Follow his travels at www.LoneStarRider.com. To donate, please visit www.RidingForACure.com. Potential sponsors can email Rex at rexjc@mac.com. For more information about the disease, please visit www.diabetes.org.