In the last few hours, Robert Aramayo has been awarded the Best Actor BAFTA for his portrayal of John Davidson, who was the first person in the United Kingdom to be diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome in the 1980s at the age of just 16.
Last year (2025) a film was released telling Johns story and the journey he went on to be diagnosed with the condition and of course raise awareness of it.
Unfortunately to begin with in the 1980s nobody understood why he (John) was behaving in a certain way, displaying symptoms of Tourette’s.
Having watched the film twice in 2025, I was left feeling a sense of anger, upset and understanding as I went on my own journey to understand why I do what I do as a disability activist.
Disabilities aren’t always understood which I of course find staggering in this day and age, however at the age of 29 I have come to realise that the world is not as perfect as we would like it to be.
Since 2016 I have been working to raise awareness of disability and why we as a community should be accepted for who we are as individual’s and not for the disabilities we have.
To see Robert (Aramayo) win a BAFTA along with a rising star award this evening shows the people of our beautiful country that disabilities should be accepted no matter what.
Hate crime relating to disability is still a massive part of our society in 2026 but I strongly believe that this should not be the case and it needs to changed sooner rather than later and not in the next 5 or 10 years.
Schools and colleges across the country should be showing this remarkable film to their students in the hope that they learn to accept those with disabilities or health conditions for who we are.
Since the BAFTA’s aired this evening, I have unfortunately come across some negativity towards someone in this incredible film winning an award from members of our society on social media.
This only goes to show that there is still a long way to go when it comes to some people within within our society accepting disability for what it is.
Robert (Aramayo’s) portrayal of John (Davidson) in the film was incredible and a delight to watch.
My message to anyone that thinks it’s okay to abuse or make remarks towards anyone with a health condition or disability is this, please think about what you say and who it might affect and remember this “ if you haven’t got anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all”.
Many congratulations to Robert on his double award win this evening it is richly deserved.
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Cam
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