Belly-Dancing Belle Of The Bluebells

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I just re-shot diabetic belly-dancer, Vanessa Culliford.  It took us a while to find some bluebells but it was worth the search. She's had type 1 diabetes for 39 years is fit and healthy and a great role model for her fellow insulin dependants. This is what she says....

"I have been a type 1 diabetic for 39 of my 44 years and have somehow managed to defy a lifetime of doctors dire warnings of blindness, amputations and death by the time I'm 40 and still be here!  I also managed to produce two wonderful, healthy, non diabetic daughters and continue to be one of the fittest, if not a little rebellious, people I know.  I have always loved music and dancing, it is impossible to keep me off the dancefloor.  I started bellydancing 7 years ago to entertain my mother who had just been diagnosed with cancer at the time; I think she would be very proud and rather amused that I now have a belly dancing career thanks to James."

The Karate Kid

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This is Matilda Rostron, my latest diabetic portrait and another inspiring young lady. She's 11 and has both type 1 diabetes and coeliacs disease. As well as having some impressive karate moves, she takes part in football, netball, swimming, cycling and tag rugby. She wears an insulin pump which she says make's life a lot easier but is complicated because as well as being aware of her blood sugar levels she can't east anything that contains gluten. She says:

I get sick of it especially at parties but the people at school are very caring and good about it, particularly Mrs Elliott who helps with lunchtimes and if I feel low.

A Picture Of Mental Health

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This is Catherine Amey who I just shot in a cafe in Worthing, West Sussex. The full story will appear in a women's magazine in a month or so but here she gives a rough outline of why we did the shoot:

The feature was about my mental health journey starting from February last year when I experienced a severe psychotic episode. (Psychosis is a very serious mental illness where the patient completely loses touch with reality.) My episode was the result of a side effect of an antidepressant that had been prescribed by my GP.  While psychotic, I experienced some very frightening hallucinations and delusions and ended up having to be sectioned. The article describes my experience of psychosis as well as my time in hospital and recovery after discharge.

Super Sophie

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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.

Martina

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Martina Navratilova who I shot for The Times last year. Sadly she has just announced that she has breast cancer, it has however, already been treated and the cancer was spotted early so she should almost certainly survive.

Possibly the most sucessfull female athlete ever, she was unassuming, friendly, funny and comfortable being photographed though determined to look happy and upbeat, however I did manage to catch this more moody shot between smiles.

The Joy Of Cesc

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Cesc Fabregas who I shot for The Times. Not what you'd expect afootballer to be like, He was charming, unassuming and short. Although I'm not an Arsenal fan, it was hard not to be impressed with his heroic second half performance in the Champions League against a far superior Barcelona team on Wednesday night, where he continued playing and scored a penalty even though he'd been severely injured.

Sasha and Harry

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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 

The Shame Of Cocaine

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Joe Calzaghe, retired undefeated boxing champ and sport's personality of the year, was on the front page of yesterday's News Of The World under the headline, "Calzaghe Cocaine Shame". He's the latest celeb to fall for an undercover scoop, admitting in a hotel room with a glass of champagne in his hand that he uses the class A drug. Not only that, he went on to describe the varying quality of the drug, how much to pay for it and "please don't tell my dad" . Poor Joe, Strictly star and world boxing hero, didn't you think it was a bit odd that you were being plied with drink and asked about your drug habit by a stranger in a hotel suite? Anyway, he's proved he  isn't "the sharpest tool in the sandwich box" but he is probably the best British boxer ever, and it's not surprising that he'd turn to artificial highs after having what are probably the biggest natural ones there are. I took this picture of him a couple of years ago in happier and more focussed times.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/765953/Joe-Calzaghe-cocaine-shame-Boxing-Strictly-star-admits-secret-drug-sessions.html

Perky Popstress

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Last in the current series of 'nice ladies with their dogs' and also shot by me in front of a window at her north London home is perky popster, Nerina Pallot. Attractive, talented and really nice, singer songwriter, Nerina seems to be on the verge of something with her quite good new single, "I Don't Want To Go Out" which looks like it was also located in the front room of her Camden flat.

http://www.myspace.com/nerinapallot