Disability Awareness Day is on 10 July and with this in mind we have chosen Blaine Harrison as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month. Blaine is a musician and songwriter who is best known as the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Mystery Jets.

Blaine started playing instruments as a child. He experimented with drumming at the age of eight, as well as guitar and piano later on. In his early teens, Blaine found a love for listening to progressive rock instead of the commercial garage music preferred by his peers.

The Mystery Jets were formed in 2004 with Blaine, his Dad and his best friend when the boys were at school. More recently the line up has changed with Blaine’s Dad now in a background role.  The band divide their time between working at home in London and touring internationally. The band are currently working on their fifth studio album.

Blaine was born with the disability spina bifida, which has affected his leg muscles since he was a child. In 2009 He became a patron of the Attitude is Everything Charity, who work with live music venues in the UK to make gigs accessible for people with disabilities.

Blaine was quoted in an interview with the BBC saying, “When we first got together as a band we decided that we wouldn’t make my disability an issue, the same way we didn’t make a big deal of my dad being in the band. We weren’t interested in gimmicks… We wanted people to read our lyrics and listen to our music.”

Blaine has found that playing live as someone with a physical impairment is sometimes hard work, seeing as many modern facilities still do not have the means to cater for disabled people. He has made it clear that Mystery Jets will only play in venues who have made an effort to cater for people with disabilities and refrain from playing in small, crowded pubs.

To find out more about the Mystery Jets and Blaine see here http://www.mysteryjets.com/

To find out more about Disability Awareness Day see here http://www.disabilityawarenessday.org.uk/index.shtml

Diabetes Awareness Week 2016 runs from 12 – 18 June and with this in mind we have chosen Chris Pennell as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Chris is a professional rugby player with Worcester Warriors and an Ambassador for Diabetes UK.  Chris was first diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was 19 years old by the medical team at Worcester Warriors and is the only professional rugby player with the condition.  He thought this meant he would have to look for a career outside of professional rugby but soon realised that, if the condition is managed correctly, it is something that shouldn’t be a barrier for anyone.

Chris found coming to terms with his diagnosis difficult but found inspiration in other people who suffer from the condition like Sir Steve Redgrave who won his fifth consecutive gold medal at the Sydney Olympics three years after finding out that he was diabetic.

Chris is a supremely talented rugby player, he is a product of the Warriors Academy and made his Premiership debut against Bath Rugby in 2007.  To date he has played 165 times scoring 252 points for the club.  He has represented England at under 19’s level, the Saxons and the full England team making his debut against New Zealand at Eden Park in 2014.

As part of his role with Diabetes UK, Chris helps to raise awareness of the condition and attends fundraising events across the country.  Chief Executive of Diabetes UK Barbara Young considers Chris to be a fantastic role model to young people with diabetes.  She thinks that through his career as a top sportsman, he has proven that having diabetes does not have to hold you back.

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

Find out more about Chris via Twitter https://twitter.com/chris_pennell

Deaf Awareness Week runs from 2 – 8 May and with this in mind we have chosen Emily Mason from the University Sustainability Unit as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month. This is the first time we have chosen an individual member of staff.

Emily works in the Sustainable Development Unit, within the Estates and Facilities Directorate and like one in seven people in the UK Emily has a hearing impairment. She first noticed that her hearing was not quite right at the age of 11 but ignored it until she was older and finally went and spoke to a doctor about it. Her hearing loss is hereditary and both her parents are profoundly deaf. Emily uses lip reading with her family and in noisy environments.  At work she finds meetings tiring because she has to use her eyes a lot, especially when people talk over each other!  Other difficulties include when some people like to cover their mouths when they talk which Emily finds very annoying.  To help with using the telephone Emily has been provided with an amplifier so she can adjust the phone to be able to hear when people ring her. As a result of her deafness Emily tends to use her hands a lot when she speaks and is self-conscious about her voice.

Deafness is invisible and many people would not know that Emily is hearing impaired. Emily was inspired by her mum and dad to just get on with things and never give up on what she wanted to achieve.  She is a graduate of the University of Kent with a degree in Wildlife Conservation and now is the Project Officer at our Sustainability Unit. One of her projects is the Edible Garden based at Avery Hill Campus which is hugely successful. Emily has many interests outside of work.  She is a Chelsea fan, a huge fan of Dr Who, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and all things similar but her number one hero is David Attenborough and her most prized possession is a letter he wrote to her when she was at university.

Emily is also a stalwart member of the university choir. She finds it hard work trying to keep in time sometimes and hit the right notes but finds the little Alto crew are very supportive! In the last concert there was a signed song which she found emotional but was really special to her and her parents who came to watch. To find out more about the work Emily does at the university follow her on twitter at @sust_Greenwich or see the Sustainability Blog at http://blogs.gre.ac.uk/greengreenwich/