The family of a teenage footballer born with a rare skin condition have spoken of their pride after he landed a role in CBBC show Jamie Johnson FC.<\/p>\n
Ethan, from York, has congenital melanocytic naevus (CMN), a genetic condition that can result in large birthmarks covering up to 80% of the body.<\/p>\n
Howver, his parents, Tom and Abbi, said the 14-year-old’s birthmark had “never defined him” and that his achievements were a reflection of his “determination and strength”.<\/p>\n
Jodi Whitehouse, from CMN charity Caring Matters Now, said: “Seeing Ethan on screen means so much, not only to our CMN community but to every young person who has ever felt different because of how they look.”<\/p>\n
Ethan’s new role saw him join the ranks of aspiring players at fictitious football academy Hawx United for season four of the show.<\/p>\n
He was selected to feature in the series while he was with York City FC Academy. <\/p>\n
His audition involved playing a football match against the TV show’s existing actors to show off his skills, after which he was cast as a squad member.<\/p>\n
Executive producer Sam Talbot said Ethan’s role on the series reflected “something that is hugely important to us as a show”.<\/p>\n
“We want all children to see themselves represented on screen and to feel that they belong in the stories we tell,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Creating a world that reflects the diversity and individuality of our audience will always be at the heart of what we do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a teenage footballer born with a rare skin condition have spoken of their pride after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-556607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}