Diabetes Awareness Week takes place from 10 – 16 June and with this in mind we have chosen Jonny Labey as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Jonny is a supporter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation having been diagnosed himself with type 1 diabetes at the age of 15.

Jonny is an actor and dancer making his TV acting debut as popular EastEnders character Paul Coker where he was able to include type 1 in his character’s storyline.

But his greatest passion in life is dancing. He’s been a dancer since he was 5 years old and graduated from the prestigious Doreen Bird College of Performance, one of the University’s partner colleges. Since then he has gone on to win ITV’s Dance Dance Dance and he’s also played the lead role as Scott Hastings in Baz Luhrmann’s West End hit musical Strictly Ballroom.

In his spare time he runs a blog Know Your Type, where he interviews people from all walks of life on their experiences and tips for managing the condition.

Jonny has supported many JDRF fundraising events including The Secret Garden Dinner and Pro-Celebrity Golf days. He also works with them to inspire young people to overcome obstacles caused by type 1 and to follow their dreams:

“Everyone with type 1 diabetes should have the self-belief they can achieve whatever they want in life.”

To find out more about JDRF see here https://jdrf.org.uk/

To find out more about Diabetes Awareness Week see here https://www.diabetes.org.uk/get_involved/diabetes-week