Tuesday 19 April 2011

Where are the Irish Diabetes Role Models?


Nick Jonas
Halle Berry & Nick Jonas have been used as Diabetes Role Models some many times that I’m kinda tired of it. I don’t mind Nick Jonas so much because he’s doing his bit as a public figure for Diabetes Advocacy but as an almost 40 year old woman I can’t relate to him. As for Halle Berry, well, ever since that whole debacle about how she weaned herself off insulin while pregnant, her credibility is in the toilet.

  
Yes, there are many, many more celebrities with Type 1 diabetes but these are the two that are most commonly used.

  
Wouldn’t it be nice to have people with Type 1 Diabetes closer to home to aspire too? I just want someone famous who is Irish and who is the complete opposite of what the public perception is of diabetes. An image I can show people who give me their pitiful face when they discover I have Diabetes that it’s not a life of pain and misery.


Surely, amoung the 20,000 Irish people with Type 1 Diabetes there are a few celebrities who would speak up on our behalf?

 
Are they hiding? Why would they hide? Should I be hiding too?


 
This is what we do have and I suppose it will do for the time being.

American Spokespeople on Diabetes Awareness

  • Nick Jonas, pop star
  • Miss America 1999, Nicole Johnson
  • Mary Tyler Moore, actress
  • Bret Michaels, lead singer of the rock band Poison
  • Sharon Stone, actress

 
UK Spokespeople on Diabetes Awareness
  • Steve Redgrave, Olympic rower
  • Philip Schofield (mother & brother with Type 1)
  • Lucy Davis from “The Office”

Irish Spokespeople on Diabetes Awareness who we appreciate but have Type 2
  • Gerald Kean
  • Karl Spain
  • Ian Dempsey

 Irish Public Figures who have Type 1 Diabetes.  
  • Mary Banotti, former MEP
  • Pat Carey TD from Kerry
  • Catherine Brady, world champion kickboxer
  • Kenneth Sweeney, former senior county footballer; Sligo

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