A Quebec cyclist who left Stanley Park with his two children less than three weeks ago on a fundraising ride has been killed in Manitoba.

Daniel Hurtubise and his son Alexandre, 19, and daugher Sonia, 16, were in the midst of their cross-country "Ride of a Lifetime" to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation when a car struck them 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg on Sunday afternoon.

According to news reports from Manitoba, the driver is cooperating with police.

Hurtubise had Type 1 diabetes since he was 15. He and a Kelowna cyclist, who hasn't been identified, both died yesterday afternoon.

The two teenage children were sent to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to Daniel Hurtubise's Web site.

The JDRF issued a statement of expressing its deepest condolences to the families for the deaths and injuries to the Ride of a Lifetime cyclists.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that kills pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin. Without insulin, a person can't absorb blood sugars.

Sustained high blood-sugar levels over a long period of time can damage internal organs, contributing to heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, and other complications.

Low blood-sugar levels can cause a person to drift into a diabetic coma and sometimes cause death.