Guest Speaker Chats
#diabeteschat – Paul O’Neill (13/2/2023)
Paul O’Neill is a former British Touring car Championship driver, and now is an ITV sports pundit. Paul found his passion for motor sports from a very young age and had an impressive 15-year career in the hot seat and achieved notable successes along the way including his famous first BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) win on his home circuit in 2002. In 2004 Paul was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and was forced to rebuild his career over the coming years; returning back in to the track in 2006, achieving an impressive three top-tens in the six remaining races. Paul’s next full season in BTCC would come in 2009. Paul is the co-founder of 29 Productions and does mentoring, coaching and tuition.
In this episode Tom, Gary, Kes and the Diabetes Chat community asked questions to Paul and we learned about his incredible journey of living with diabetes and how he managed his diabetes with everyday life being a professional race driver and we talked about mental health, peer support, and his ambassador roles for Diabetes UK and The Sporting Memories Foundation, plus lots more.
