John Junior, known as The Duckman is a British mental health activist. He is known for featuring in the multi-award winning and BAFTA nominated documentary series, Hollyoaks IRL. In November 2019, he created the mental health movement "John and Charlie's Journey", to raise awareness for suicide and mental illness.
Background
Junior was born with short leg syndrome, has a clubfoot and lives with arthritis. They were homeless at the age of 16. Junior lost their dad in 2018.
When Junior was 8 years old he didn't feel right in the body he was assigned at birth and when he was 11 years old he wanted a gender reassignment. He was then diagnosed with Klinefelter's syndrome and put on hormone therapy. At 14 years old he began questioning his gender identity and sexuality. Junior has since began to identify as non-binary.
Junior lives with obsessive-compulsive disorder. He has to eat food with a pair of metal tongs, saying "I can't touch food otherwise I'll die and others around me will die". He has struggled with intrusive thoughts and thoughts of suicide.
Activism
In 2019, Junior started vlogging about their experiences of mental health issues on Instagram in order to reach others with mental health difficulties. In May 2020, Junior tested the Samaritans' self-help app for UNILAD during mental health awareness week. Junior subsequently talked to UNILAD about their mental health struggles to help raise awareness for world suicide prevention day on 10 September 2020.
In November 2019, Junior created a mental health movement called "John and Charlie's Journey". Junior and Charlie The Duck, (stuffed toy teddy), to encourage people to talk about mental health and to end the judgement & stigma surrounding mental health.
In September 2020, the "DBT for all campaign" was created by Junior to make dialectical behaviour therapy more widely available. (This therapy is used to treat children, teenagers and adults who are suicidal, self-harm, and have self-destructive behaviours.) The purpose of the campaign is to make DBT therapy more widely available on the NHS throughout the United Kingdom. The campaign was supported by Esther McVey, Conservative MP for Tatton, who applied for parliamentary debate at Westminster Hall.
In February 2020, Junior and Tanya Bardsley former The Real Housewives of Cheshire created the wellness hub.
Junior was invited to join Keith Duffy, Boyzone and Brian McFadden, Westlife onstage at their Boyzlife concert in Manchester to share with their fans about Junior's mental health campaigning and to raise awareness.
Junior is campaigning for all Police officers in the United Kingdom to be trained in mental health first aid and to have a specialist units for mental health.
Cost of Living Crisis
Junior receives calls from people telling him they are feeling suicidal over the raise in energy prices. He speaks to parents, older people, people on low incomes. He is working with multiple mental health charities; Samaritans, Mind charity and Papyrus to raise awareness, educate and prevent suicides The rise in energy costs is impacting people's mental health and Junior has started a video campaign and to work with members of parliament to getting people more support with their mental health.
Hollyoaks
At the start of the first UK lockdown in March 2020, Junior had suicide plans and a Hollyoaks storyline that involved suicide helped him stop. BBC Radio 5 filmed Junior thanking the people who worked on storyline and the show.
Channel 4 commissioned Limepictures to produce Hollyoaks IRL a series of short films of real-life stories. Junior's episode "Hollyoaks saved my life" was the first episode to be released on 16 June 2021. Junior went viral for their participation in the series Hollyoaks IRL. Hollyoaks Saved My Life (Hollyoaks IRL) was nominated for the a BAFTA TV Award, in the Short Form Programme 2022.
Hollyoaks IRL series was inspired by Junior, and Junior was thus invited by Channel 4 to attended the British Academy Television Awards, on 8 May 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. They were accompanied by Charlie the Duck, Vera Chok (who plays Honour Chen-Williams) and Kieron Richardson (who plays Ste Hay).
Junior is making a feature film called 'The Mood is Temporary', inspired by the Hollyoaks storyline that saved his life.
On November 26, 2022, Junior and Charlie The Duck attended the Royal Television Society Awards (North West) and received the Best Digital Creativity award for the Hollyoaks IRL series, which was presented by hosts Adam Thomas and Jenny Powell.