Creative Producer and Artist, Paul O’Donnell of Extraordinary Us, says he realised early on he was never going to be a “perfect person”. While other kids in the school playground were running around, “I was injecting myself with needles, and occasionally collapsing if my blood sugars went too low,” he says.
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at only two years old, Paul was a rare case, since most will develop type 1 diabetes “in their teen years,” he says.
“I was well ahead of the trend!”
Paul’s family quickly had to learn to manage his insulin levels and this has become part of the fabric of who he is and always has been, because living with the condition is a “24/7 endurance,” confirms Paul, “with no days off ― ever”.
In 2023, Paul created a show called Dia-Beat-Es, a “unique theatrical comedy DJ set” in which he “mixes popular songs like Sweet Dreams, Because I Got High (blood sugars) and Bleeding Love into his own story of living with the condition”.
Its aim is to raise awareness of diabetes burnout, a mental health condition where the strain of having no time off from managing diabetes leads to neglect.
Dia-Beat-Es is a party, it is a personal true story, it is moving at points and a rave at others. And it is from my honest perspective, the perspective of a Type 1 who is nowhere near a perfect Diabetic, or DJ. I think both of those things make me just that little bit more ‘human‘ ― Paul O’Donnell in Beyond the Curtain
Paul learnt to DJ specifically so he could bring his idea for Dia-beat-es to life, seeing a unique cross-over between DJ-ing and type 1 diabetes: “the drug cultures, highs and lows, the discs of the decks and the discs as the blood checker on my arm.”
Paul has to check his blood often and, since he does this through his phone, has to make sure it always has charge. Yet despite this relentless reality, he is able to embrace and even celebrate his difference.
“Growing up with the condition, I learnt through comparison to others in the playground I’m never going to achieve ‘perfect’. There’s a sense of liberation in that, and relief in actively pushing away from the conforms of societal expectation. It stuck with me into adult life and, in part, is why I formed Extraordinary Us, an organisation that elevates the ordinary. There’s a preconceived idea of what we should be and what our lives should look like, but I was never going to be able to follow that path. Through Extraordinary Us, I champion the notion we are all imperfectly perfect ― including you.”
Paul O’Donnell
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