Diabetes is a disease that can affect anyone. Whether you are born with Type 1 or have acquired Type 2, the truth is that people from all across the planet – despite wealth, race, age, sex or geographic location – have the disease. One way to really raise awareness of how diabetes can touch us all is to take a look at celebrities and famous people who have the disease. By realizing that even the most successful and the most popular people on the planet can live with the disease, people can be inspired. Diabetes does not have to slow them down.
There are some really great sites out there, like www.dlife.com, which have compiled lists of famous people, past and present, with diabetes. Some examples include:
Halle Berry – Actress (Monster’s Ball, X-Men, Die Another Day)
James Brown – ‘The Godfather of Soul’
Johnny Cash – ‘The Man in Black’
Dick Clark – Entertainer, television producer
Miles Davis – Jazz Musician
Aretha Franklin – ‘The Queen of Soul’
Ernest Hemingway – Author (For Whom the Bell Tolls; A Farewell to Arms; The Sun Also Rises)
Rick James – Singer (“Super Freak” Funk Legend)
Nick Jonas – The Jonas Brothers Larry King – Talk show host
Jerry Lewis – Comedian
Anne Rice – Author (Interview With a Vampire)
H. G. Wells – Author (War of the Worlds; The Time Machine; The Invisible Man) founded the British Diabetic Association
Check out dLife’s list for a lot more names.
What is seriously lacking, however, is a list of celebrities from the Arab world, celebrities that people from the Middle East can connect with and can be inspired by. I can only find a few:
President Hafez al-Assad– President Syria
King Fahd – King of Saudi Arabia
Anwar Sadat – President of Egypt
Gamal Abdel-Nasser – Former Leader of Egypt
So if you can think of any others, singers, artists, movie stars from the Middle East, I will gladly add them to the list.
Filed under: art, Facts and Figures, fun, Opinion | Tagged: celebrity, diabetes, Egypt, famous, GCC, halle berry, johnny cash, middle east, miles davis, movie stars, music, nick jonas, rick james, rock stars | 2 Comments »