A Vancouver businessman has made a large financial contribution to fight an extremely serious disease affecting 300,000 Canadians.

Tom Gaglardi, president of Northland Properties Corp. and owner of the Dallas Stars, recently contributed $3 million to JDRF Canada to fund research into Type 1 diabetes.

"As the parent of a child with Type 1 diabetes, I am incredibly proud to support JDRF in funding the kind of critical research that will improve the lives of people living with this disease," Gaglardi said in a JDRF news release.

The JDRF's Encapsulation Research Program works with more than 50 scientists around the world on ways to generate or produce beta cells, which produce insulin that absorbs blood sugar.

In addition, the program supports research into biotechnologies to help prevent the immune system from killing beta cells.

Type 1 diabetes is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week autoimmune disease that destroys these insulin-producing cells.

Without insulin, the body cannot absorb blood sugars. This means that anyone with this disease must have regular injections of insulin to survive or wear a pump to have insulin automatically transmitted into the bloodstream.

It hits families hard, regardless of their incomes. That's because parents must constantly monitor their young children's blood levels at different hours of the day or night.

If levels go too high over sustained periods of time, it can cause serious damage to the organs, including the liver, heart, kidneys, and eyes.

If levels drop precipitously low, it can cause a potentially fatal diabetic coma.

The president and CEO of JDRF International, Derek Rapp, said in the news release that Gaglardi's generous donation "will move us meaningfully closer to our goal of turning Type 1 diabetes into type none".

"On behalf of everyone whose life is touched by Type 1 diabetes, I thank Tom and his family," Rapp said.

The president and CEO of JDRF Canada, Dave Prowten, also expressed his appreciation.

"We are on the verge of defeating a disease that affects so many people in Canada—and around the world," Prowten said.

While Type 1 diabetes has serious complications, many with the disease have led extremely successful and productive lives.

Former B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix, actors Mary Tyler Moore and Halle Berry, and former Philadelphia Flyers star and ex-NHL executive Bob Clarke are just four examples.