Family and Child Portraits

Jadie And Tia

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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

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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!

Kicking Diabetes Into Touch

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This is 13 year-old Aubi Bone. Oh and it's his dad, Andrew's cheesy headline. Likeable and enthusiastic, this is what Aubi says about himself....

"I was 10 years old when I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  It was a huge shock, although it does run in my father's side of the family. We've always eaten healthily, though, so my diet didn't have to change. I have always been very sporty and play rugby, football, tennis, basket-ball  and in the summer, athletics and swimming.  I also walk and cycle. All these are possible as long as I regulary test my blood-sugar - even in the middle of matches - and make sure that I have a bottle of lucozade to hand. I adjust my insulin according to the amount of exercise I am about to do and the carbohydrate I am about to eat. All the sport, and especially rugby, does make me more prone to "hypos", particularly at night, but they are easily fixed and I'd rather be a little low that high. I will not allow diabetes to stop me and, in any case, exercise is good, whoever you are.  Just be aware, tell everyone (all my friends know about my condition and what to do in an emergency) and never let it stop you!"

Surf's Up! But Blood Sugar is Down

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This is Conel Freeman-Harrison, a 14 year-old diabetic surfer and insulin pump wearer. I flew up to Newcastle earlier this week and photographed him on his local beach at Tynemouth, a picturesque spot that dispelled any thoughts I had of it being grim in the North East. I didn't actually say that but his mum Fiona noted my surprise at how nice it was. Conel was a real star, a good surfer with a cool and relaxed attitude, especially to his mum giving him sugar when his blood glucose got low. Here's some words of wisdom from Conel......

Hello, I'm Conel Freeman-Harrison. I go to Whitley Bay High School and I surf at Tynemouth Longsands using a 5'10" Bic Fish board. I only began surfing 3 years ago and have had 3 lessons with pro surfer Jesse Davis. My diabetes does not really get in the way of my surfing other than my mum asking me to keep hypo-fit up the sleeve of my wetsuit. It has never stopped me doing anything I want to do and I do not think it ever will. When I'm older I would like to be a Marine Biologist, giving me a good reason to surf where I work."

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.

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.

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 Mistress Of Distraction

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As anyone knows who works from home, it's easy to get distracted and even the smallest things can stop you from knuckling down and doing something constructive work-wise. This is even more the case when you've got young children at home too, Daisy Mae's latest very successful, attention grabbing trick is to dance in my office. Here she tries ballet and something more contemporary in a grass skirt.