Jadie And Tia

This is Jadie, age 10 who has had diabetes for just 3 months. We did the shoot in my local park, she's roller-skating with her dog, Tia. Recently diagnosed she is still getting used to her new life with diabetes. She says....

To begin with it  wasn't so bad  did my own bloods from the begining and then started injecting myself after about 3 weeks . had a bad week this month because my injections started to hurt and  I don't want to be diabetic anymore but it has it’s plus sides, I can eat in class when my friends can't. Being diabetic hasn't stopped me doing anything, I go roller skating nearly every day and Tia can pull me along. I swim with my friends and love playing on my trampoline. I don't feel any different to my friends but they all know if  have a hypo when I am with them, as long as  have my packet of dextrose tablets with me  I am fine’

Hypo Photo

This is 9 year old Hannah Lawton posing at the edge of her friend’s pool in Speldhurst, Kent. It was a shockingly hot day leading me to experience a hypo during the shoot. Luckily her mum, Helen was close at hand with a good supply of jelly beans. Hannah says....

I enjoy swimming because it's great fun and energetic. It gives me a lot of exercise so I have to remember to take some extra sugar or jelly beans. I also enjoy dancing and do tap, jazz and freestyle every week. I think keeping active is very important to stay healthy and it's fun too!

The Treetop Pluckers

This is diabetic and musical father and son, Tom and Jed strumming together up a tree in the South Downs. Jed is a student at Brighton Institute of Modern Music. He says,

It's great having a dad with diabetes; he's given me some brilliant tips and let me into some type-1 trade secrets. During a gig, even with all that adrenaline, I'm always on top of my blood sugars.

Tom is the author of the number-one bestseller, 211 Things A Bright Boy Can Do and his next volume, A Gentleman's Bedside Book is out in the autumn. He says:

I feel so privileged to have been given this fascinating condition. After four decades, and some 47,000 injections, I wouldn't change a thing. Diabetes is as much a part of me as my moustache or my love of Islay malt whiskies. What's more, Jed understands his condition so well now that I never have to worry about him. It's been great.

Super Sophie

This is my latest diabetic portrait. The truly inspirational 19-year-old Sophie Constable who lives with both Down's Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. This is how her mum describes her..........

Sophie is passionate about life. She plays football for a girls' disability team, represents Hertfordshire at netball, swims,  and horesrides having come first in her event at the RDA National Championships 2 years ago. Sophie is a massive Man Utd supporter and went to Moscow for the Champions League Final 2 years ago and to Rome last year. She loves to travel and has visited, amongst others, Cuba, Egypt, India. Sophie's great interests now are music and dancing, specifically street dancing and belly dancing. She loves going to gigs. Sophie loves to cook and eat, she has recently taken up photography and just entered her first competition. Sophie went to mainstream schools and got 5 GCSE's, though she wasn't happy about the grades. She's now at college doing an IT course. Sophie has been an altar server at church for nearly 11 years which is something she is very proud of and particularly likes training up the young servers when they start. Sophie loves to raise money for charity and over the years has raised thousands of pounds. Mostly she auctions or raffles memorabilia she has been given at Manchester Utd but she has also organised quiz evenings. Sophie has given the money to different charities but mostly it has been for Africa.

The week after getting diabetes she said she loved it. She's never really minded the bl tests or insulin and loved the fact that she was geting " 5 meals a day" and always got priority in restaurants and on planes. For the first year it was all a breeze and I felt a bit of a fraud siitting in the diabetic out patient clinic.  Since then it's been more of a pain. As Sophie has Down's Syndrome as well it makes things a bit more complicated. During the day Sophie does her own bl tests and insulin and carb counts her packed lunch which she prepares herself for college. Night times are more difficult as she needs help with working out how much to eat for her night snack and the blood sugars can be unpredictable. We do blood tests at night, when she's asleep, and if she's hypo we give her food and she goes straight back to sleep. Occasionally she cheats but mostly she's very responsible about what she eats. Sophie's HbA1C, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight etc are always great, in fact she's very healthy.

Sasha and Harry

Sasha Playfoot, happy soul, talented horse rider and recently diagnosed diabetic who I just shot in Burnham, Berkshire. Here's the email she sent for the  picture caption.....

Hi James, Thanks for coming today, I had loads of fun! Did you get any good photos? Mum said you needed to know some details, so here they are; I'm 13 and was diagnosed with type 1 on January 8th 2009 and I now use an insulin pump. I've been horse-riding since I was 3 and the horse I was riding today is called Harry. Thanks again, Sasha 

Husky And Mischievous

Another day and another attractive older lady with a dog. Today's Daily Mail featured this shot of mine to go with a Felicity Kendal interview. She worked with me, her spaniel and a stepladder to create this unforgettable image. Well unforgettable for me anyway and I certainly won't forget what The Mail, right for a change, describe as her "husky and mischievous chuckle".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1259077/From-Good-Life-good-time-girl-Felicity-Kendal-tells-encounters-prostitution-inspired-unlikely-new-role.html

Janet Is A Punk Rocker

I've just had the honour of pointing my lens at the lovely Janet Ellis. The ex-Blue Peter presenter, asthma sufferer and mother of Sophie Ellis-Bexter posed at her west London home with Lucy, her large shaggy dog, who is not normally allowed on the sofa. I noticed that Janet's cd collection contained The Ramones Anthology, it was probably her husband's, but anyway she rocks! (I wasn't snooping by the way, it's an easilly recognisable double cd with pink writing).

Jeremy

I don't know much about him really, apart from, that he has learning disabilities and was enjoying the facilities at the launch of The Dartford Bridge Community Centre this afternoon. He's got a winning smile though.

The Ballerina Of Suburbia.

Samantha Barnett strikes a dance pose in her living room in Chislehurst, Kent. She's bursting with energy and keen to show that her life is lived to the max even though she's had Type 1 diabetes for 8 years and wears an insulin pump.