Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – July 2018

Disability Awareness Day takes place on 15 July and with this in mind we have chosen JJ Chalmers as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

JJ was a Royal Marine with 42 Commando and in May 2011, he sustained devastating injuries in an IED blast in Afghanistan where he suffered facial injuries, lost two fingers and his right elbow disintegrated.

He was put back together by a team of medics, having nearly 30 operations and consequently it gave him a new perspective on life giving him the confidence to follow his dreams.

In September 2014, JJ took part in the Invictus Games and was a medal winner in non-amputee cycling, he Captained the trike team, he received a gold medal for the Men’s IRecB1 Recumbent Circuit Race, he won a bronze in the 1-mile time trial and he also won a bronze medal in the 4 × 100m mixed relay race.   In July 2016, he returned — as an Ambassador — to the 2016 Invictus Games, telling his story at the opening ceremony.

JJ went on to work with the BBC on their coverage of the games as well as presenting National Paralympic Day for Channel 4.  He travelled to Rio, as a presenter for Channel 4’s award-winning coverage of the 2016 Paralympics, as well as appearing as a guest on The Last Leg, broadcast nightly live from a studio in Rio.

In February 2017 JJ began presenting sports segments on BBC News and commentated on the Lord Mayor’s Show.  In 2018 the Commonwealth Games in The Gold Coast saw him presenting the BBC Sport’s TV coverage live on BBC One.

To find out more about JJ and what he is doing see here https://twitter.com/JJChalmersRM

To find out more about Disability Awareness Day see here https://www.disabilityawarenessday.org.uk/show/

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *