Sydneysider Morris was diagnosed with diabetes in 1996 at the age of 10. Although he was initially shocked and scared about how it would affect him, he soon became determined to achieve his dreams - even with a medical regime that requires five injections of insulin every day.

He started competing seriously in mountain bikes at the age of 14, then moved onto road bikes five years later for training purposes and by 2009 had been signed up as a pro for the MACE/Wilson Racing team in Australia’s top level domestic series. Up until that point, though, he kept his diabetes totally secret from other riders – not wanting to attract any attention for having medical issues.

“At that time, I don’t think most of the people I rode with would have had a clue that I had diabetes. My close friends did, but other than that I kept it to myself,” he says.

“I didn’t like to talk about it, I didn’t want to feel different, so I just kept it to myself which made it very difficult sometimes.”

However, his team manager was aware that Morris was diabetic and soon put him in touch with Team Type 1 (now rebranded as Team Novo Nordisk) – an amazing professional set-up based in USA whose squad is filled entirely with riders with the condition.

And so he packed his bags and moved to America, which was not only the start of a new racing career – but also the spark for his passion to spread the message about Type 1 diabetes and how people do not have to be constricted by it.

“When I joined Team Type 1, I started to accept my own illness a bit more and to talk about it a bit more. And subsequently my management of my own diabetes got a lot better,” he explains.