Erm… a thing happened last week. Quite a big thing, actually…
I only went and won the National Diversity Awards Positive Role Model for LGBT 2025 Award!!!! I can’t believe that I have won this major National award, just two years after winning the British Diversity Awards Hero of the Year 2023. It has blown my mind!
The glittering event was held in the stunning Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and it was expertly hosted again by the lovely Clare Balding. Given that my lower gender confirmation surgery was only 11 weeks ago, it was touch and go whether I would be able to make it to the award ceremony in person, but on the advice of a gender nurse at the hospital and with the help of a “doughnut” cushion, my partner Jasmin and I made it up there and I’m so glad we did!
It was such an honour to even be a finalist, as there were a staggering 85,000 nominees across all the awards and I really didn’t think that I stood a chance of winning, when I saw who my fellow finalists were: Rob Hurley, G Sabini-Roberts, Adam Zane, Patrick “Poggy” Murray Whitham, Susan Logie, Fox Fisher and Mr DK Green. They are incredible in their own right and any one of them would have been worthy of winning this award. I really couldn’t believe it when Married at First Sight star Ella Morgan announced me as the winner and subsequently presented the award to me!
Thankfully, I had prepared an acceptance speech for the event that that I was the winner and I’m so glad I was able to deliver it. It was a hard-hitting speech about the plight of trans people in the UK today. I was bowled over by the response from the audience though, as I got a standing ovation! Here’s a video of my reaction when my name was announced and also of my acceptance speech:
It was such an incredible evening. We left the after-party at 2am and it was still going strong! Jasmin and I finally arrived back home in Leicestershire this afternoon, very tired, but very, very happy!
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