"Beauty and the Beast" star and CFL player kick off 20th anniversary event to help kids with diabetes

Over $100 million and counting raised in TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes

TORONTO, March 27, 2014 /CNW/ - Join Sun Life Financial and JDRF (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) to launch the 20^th anniversary of the TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes, a community event that has raised over $100 million for diabetes research funding since its inception in 1994.

To help celebrate this milestone walk, Saskatchewan Roughriders' defensive end, John Chick, and star of Showtime's "Beauty and the Beast", Austin Basis, will be on hand to share their personal stories of living with diabetes. Both John and Austin were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as children.

There are more than 300,000 Canadians currently living with type 1 diabetes and that number is steadily increasing each year. JDRF has made it their mission to find an end to type 1 diabetes through research projects focused on three basic areas: Cure, Treat and Prevent. This year's walk will hit almost 73 cities across Canada, with a goal of raising $8 million for diabetes research.

With a commitment to diabetes awareness and prevention, Sun Life Financial is a national sponsor of the 20^th anniversary walk.

Since partnering with JDRF to become the title sponsor of the TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes in 2008, TELUS has contributed more than $7 million to the cause.

Media are invited to attend the launch event and hear the inspirational stories of our speakers.

For additional information on the TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes, visit www.jdrf.ca. For tips on healthy living and diabetes management and prevention, visit BrighterLife.ca.

About Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of protection and wealth products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Sun Life Financial and its partners have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of December 31, 2013 the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of $640 billion. For more information please visit, www.sunlife.com.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

Note to editors: All figures in Canadian dollars.

About JDRF

JDRF is the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. JDRF's goal is to progressively remove the impact of T1D from people's lives until we achieve a world without T1D. JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners and is the only organization with the scientific resources, regulatory influence, and a working plan to better treat, prevent, and eventually cure T1D. As the largest charitable supporter of T1D research, JDRF is currently sponsoring $530 million in scientific research in 17 countries. For more information, please visit jdrf.ca.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is Canada's fastest-growing national telecommunications company, with $11.4 billion of annual revenue and 13.3 million customer connections, including 7.8 million wireless subscribers, 3.3 million wireline network access lines, 1.4 million Internet subscribers and 815,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed more than $350 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 5.4 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

SOURCE Sun Life Financial Canada