Brian Friedman — a member of my free, online KickSugar group — is swimming handcuffed Friday morning across the Hudson River to fight the diabetes epidemic.

Why handcuffs?

Well, Brian, 43, wants to get the point across that people with diabetes "feel shackled by the disease."

Earlier this afternoon, Brian casually announced his intentions via e-mail to my group, when Myra, my astute KickSugar Assistant Moderator quickly alerted me to his athletic prowess to help defeat diabetes. I immediately tracked down the swimmer through his EscapeFromDiabetes website and reached Brian on the phone.

He was recuperating from another swim — this one across the Potomac — on Tuesday morning.

'Course most won't be able to tackle such a rigorous exercise regime, much less without the handcuffs.

But Brian has experience testing the waters. In fact, he's a fitness trainer, who, last year swam handcuffed from Alcatraz to San Francisco in 54 minutes and 20 seconds (a world record, he says).

If you want to see Brian swim, go to either Weehawken Harbor in New Jersey at 7 a.m. Friday or to Surfside 3 Marina at Chelsea Piers (23rd Street and the Hudson River) in New York at 8 a.m. (when he expects to arrive). 

Brian crossing the Hudson River in honor of his grandfather, "who developed type 2 diabetes in the 1960s and, had both legs amputated in the '70s and that's the way he lived the rest of his life until he passed away in 1989.

"I remember visiting my grandfather when I was in high school, and he couldn't be an active person any longer. It was a major production for him to even go to a restaurant.

"The sad part is that when my grandfather got successful he loved to eat and go to Giant games," says Brian, who believes that his grandfather's poor lifestyle habits helped trigger his diabetes.