On 14 July it is Disability Awareness Day and with this in mind we have chosen Sophie Morgan as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

In 2003 Sophie was left paralysed from the chest down after a road accident when she was 18 years old after which she was determined to channel her adversity into opportunity.

In 2004, 9 months after her accident, she took part in the first series of BBC Two‘s Beyond Boundaries, which followed 11 disabled people on an expedition to traverse 220 miles across Nicaragua from its Atlantic coast to its Pacific coast.  She haS also appeared in Britain’s Missing Top Model where women with disabiliities competed to become a model, challenging boundaries in the beauty and fashion industries in which she came runner up.

In 2013, she presented Licence to Kill, a documentary for BBC Three about road accidents like hers caused by young drivers. Following broadcast of the film, Sophie teamed up with BBC Learning and Drive iQ to launch the Licence to Kill Schools Tour, visiting schools and colleges to promote young driver safety. The tour was endorsed by organizations including Road Safety GB, Transport for London, and RoadSafe.

Sophie has now worked as a reporter for the BBC and Channel 4 appearing on Horizon, The One Show and No Go Britain.  She has also become a presenter for Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics in 2012 and 2016 and the 2016 IPC European Swimming Championships.

Sophie has been involved in many campaigns including The Back Up Trust providing support for people with spinal cord injuries, she is a patron of Scope, an ambassador for Parallel London and she has assisted in promoting SEAT a programme to help disabled youths to drive.  She also designed the ‘Mannequal’ a wheelchair for a mannequin which was installed in Adidas and Debenhams.

To find out more about Sophie see here https://www.sophiemorgan.com/

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

Deaf Awareness Week takes place between 6 and 12 May and with this in mind we have chosen Mat Gilbert as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Mat is a professional rugby union player currently playing for Hartpury College RFC.  Mat joined Hartpury from Worcester Warriors, having also played for Bath Rugby, the Scarlets and Modigliano (Italy).   

Apart from being an experienced player, Mat is unusual in that he has achieved all of this despite being severely deaf – he has played for the England Deaf team on numerous occasions and is tireless in his efforts to encourage more opportunities for deaf children to get involved in the sport.

Mat is a long-serving ambassador for the charity Action for Hearing Loss.  He supports many fundraising events across the UK and has been the guest speaker at the charity’s annual Christmas Carol Concert.

To find out more about Deaf Awareness Week see here

To find out more about Action for Hearing Loss

On 2 April it is World Autism Awareness Day and with that in mind we have chosen Rosie King as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Rosie is a writer and public speaker from Wakefield. She is currently studying creative writing at university and wants to go on to teach and support people with learning disabilities, as well as pursuing her career in writing, and speaking.

Rosie and her brother Lenny are autistic and their sister Daisy has Kabuki syndrome. Rosie is passionate about sharing their unique experiences of life and increasing public understanding.

Rosie has delivered a very well received TED talk, has spoken at conferences and has been interviewed widely in the media. She is one of the writers of popular CBeebies series Pablo, and also voices one of the characters.

Rosie has worked with the National Autistic Society in various ways, starting when she was a teenager in the Young Campaigners Group.

In the intervening years, she’s spoken at Professional Conferences, led a Q&A on the Society Twitter channel, and supported campaigns. Rosie has worked on many media opportunities, including BBC Breakfast and the One Show.

Rosie is a passionate speaker who offers a positive and thought-provoking insight into autism.

To find out more about Rosie see here

https://www.ted.com/speakers/rosie_king

To find out more about World Autism Awareness Day see herehttps://www.autismspeaks.org/world-autism-awareness-day

21 March is World Down Syndrome Day and with that in mind we have chosen Sarah Gordy as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Sarah is an actress who has Down syndrome. She gained her first professional acting job on the ITV television series, Peak Practice, and subsequently landed many other TV and theatre roles.

She is best known for her roles as Orlando Quine in Strike: The Silkworm and Lady Pamela Holland in the BBC TV series Upstairs Downstairs. She has also acted in episodes of Call the Midwife, Holby City and Doctors. As well as these BBC shows, she has acted in short films, radio dramas, commercials and many theatre productions.

In 2014 she appeared in an episode of Call the Midwife, in which the episode highlighted the treatment of people with physical and intellectual disabilities in British society in the late 1950s.

She also appeared in the BBC Radio 4 play, Resurrection, has read four “Bedtime Stories” for CBeebies and in 2014 she broke new ground by playing a central character without a disability in the play Crocodiles at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.

Sarah is also one of the principal dancers for Culture Device Dance Project, an experimental dance company for professional dancers with Down syndrome. She has performed in Germany, Macedonia, UK and Ireland. She performed a series of dance pieces at the My Perspective International Photography Competition Awards Ceremony in June 2016 which is held each year by the Down Syndrome Association (DSA).

In 2013 when she was nominated for the BBC Sussex and Surrey Community Heroes Award which she won. She was given the Arts Award in Lewes Town Council’s Civic Awards in 2014 for service to the people of Lewes and her work in the Arts, especially for disabled people living and working in Lewes.

In November 2018 she was presented with an MBE for services to the arts and people with disabilities becoming the first woman with Down syndrome to receive the award. The following month she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Nottingham, becoming the first person with Down syndrome to be awarded an honorary degree by a British university.

Sarah is a celebrity ambassador for Mencap and Patron of Circus Starr.

To find out more about World Down Syndrome Day see here https://www.worlddownsyndromeday2.org/

To find out more about Sarah see here

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1527688/?ref_=nmls_hd

World Braille Day takes place on 4 January and with that in mind we have chosen Jill Barkley as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month.

At 19 years old, Jill suddenly lost her sight from diabetic rhetinopathy. While adjusting to the huge change, Jill’s mum encouraged her to give hospital radio a go and she found her new passion. Jill studied sound engineering and came top of her class of eighty boys before taking a media degree at university and became a qualified journalist. Around 12 years ago Jill joined RNIB Connect Radio (originally Insight Radio) in Scotland, Europe’s first station for blind and partially sighted people.

Every week day Jill presents her show The Morning Mix on RNIB Connect. It’s a mix of great tunes, disability issues and listener call-ins, with her own unique mix of empathy, positivity and fun. She has also worked with BBC Radio Scotland hosting the Music Match and this year she took over a late night slot, presenting The Jill Barkley Show. Some of those listeners now tune in to RNIB Connect, too. As well as being a fantastic role model for what visually impaired people can achieve, Jill has been very open and frank about the challenges, including the breakdown she had a few years after losing her sight.

She’s an ambassador for RNIB and Guide Dogs UK, regularly speaks for both charities at events, and featured in a documentary about guide dogs on ITV. Jill’s a regular at festivals, where she reviews performances and interviews acts. She’s usually right at the front of the crowd at the shows, and has interviewed huge international stars including Dolly Parton, Guy Garvey from Elbow and Florence Welch from Florence + The Machine.

She also throws herself in to a huge range of things, from fire-breathing to conducting an orchestra, to flying a light aircraft!

To find out more about World Braille Day see here https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-braille-day/

To find out more about Jill see here https://twitter.com/Jill_Barkley

Monday 3 December is International Day of Disabled Persons 2018 with that in mind we have chosen Billy Monger as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Billy is a racing driver who first got behind the wheel of a vehicle at the age of three when his father bought him a go-kart.  He successfully progressed as a driver in Ginetta Junior and British F4 earning the nickname Billy the Whizz.

In 2016 Billy joined the F4 British Championships with JHR Developments where he took 3 podiums and finished 12 in the championships and remained with the team for 2017.

However on 16 April 2017 whilst competed in a race at Donnington Billy crashed into a stationery car at high speed resulting in devastating leg injuries which required double lower leg amputations.

Billy received huge support from his fellow drivers and the racing community raising £500,000 in 24 hours.  Despite his injuries his recuperation and rehabilitation have been such that he returned to the race track in July 2017 when he tested an adapted race car with additional hand controls at Brands Hatch.

In February 2018 Billy drove a single seater racing car for the first time since his crash when he tested a BRDC British Formula 3 car for the Carlin team at Oulton Park. The following month he confirmed that he would be racing for Carlin in the opening meeting of the 2018 BRDC Formula 3 series at the same venue.

In order to compete in F3, he and his family had to appeal to the sport’s international governing body, to change their regulations, as they had restricted disabled drivers from racing single seaters on the grounds of safety: the FIA decided to lift the ban in December 2017, allowing disabled drivers to race appropriately-modified single seaters as long as they could pass safety checks. In March 2018 less than a year after his accident Billy placed his Carlin British F3 car fifth on the grid and went on to finish an incredible third and walked onto the podium.

To find out more about Billy

https://www.billymongerracing.co.uk/billywhizz

To find out more about International Day of the Disabled

https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/international-day-of-persons-with-disabilities-3-december/idpd18.html