Late in 2013, the MS & Me blog launched with an idea, a hope and a cadre of nine bloggers with what we jokingly referred to as “varying levels of inexperience”. The idea was to create a space where real conversations about MS would be led by people with the disease. The ambition for MS Ireland was that we, the bloggers, would strike a chord and stir conversation in our national and international community.
We know these past four years have been a great success for the MS & Me community and we’re excited to announce the expansion of our team in the coming posts. First, however, it wouldn’t be right to let the departure of a few of our original bloggers pass unmentioned.
The volunteer endeavor to make this a safe and interesting place, where people can read of the experiences of others and share their own, has been a monumental commitment of time, energy and emotion. Some of our original team have taken the opportunity of the expansion of our blogging team to recommit to other aspects of their lives.
Goodbye and Good Luck
First, we’re ‘kicking Emma upstairs’, as it were. As well as blogging with us, she’s been a part of the editorial team of MS & Me since before we published our first post. We have restructured our editorial side for 2018 and, with a vastly expanded roster of bloggers, Emma will have more time to focus on editing and communication aspects of the blogs. We may hear from her every now and again, but, for the most part, Emma will be helping our new bloggers express their voices in the coming months.
Trevis will also be stepping back a bit from actively blogging. He’ll be concentrating on a new series of group blogs we’ve planned for the coming year, so you’ll still see some of his writings, but in a slightly different way.
Both Aoife and Lucina will, sadly, be leaving our team as well.
Aoife has always given us a youthful vibe and positive outlook in her writing. From personal tales of difficulties to representing us all in Leinster House, we have enjoyed and been inspired by Aoife. She is now currently working for MS Ireland and is also very involved with Shift.MS. We can’t wait to see what how she continues to use her voice for all people living with multiple sclerosis.
Lucina has been busy with more than the MS & Me blog in the past four years. She’s been producing films, raising her twins, writing her personal musings in both her blog Poppy Cottage Diaries as well as the occasional piece in the national papers. She’s been an inspiration to us all. We’ll miss her wit, her smile and her pragmatism.
We wish Aoife and Lucina continued success and good health as we part this company, but we also know that they’ll never be far from our hearts in this little community of people with MS in Ireland.
In our coming posts we’ll introduce you to our new bloggers and catch you up on what’s been going on with our original team members who are sticking around for another year.
2018 is having a blustery start on the weather front but for the MS & Me blog the forecast is it’s going to be a *HOT* New Year!
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