News

Monday, 25th September 2023, MS Ireland launched the MS Readathon at the Irish Print Museum today with RTE’s Rick O’Shea, children’s authors Alan Nolan and Nicola Pierce, MS Readathon Ambassador Shirley Keane O’Brien and 2nd and 3rd class children from John Scottus primary school.

MS Ireland is delighted to launch their MS Respite Centre Business Case seeking an additional €627,000 funding to increase respite availability to people with Multiple Sclerosis and other neurological conditions. This extra funding will expand the Respite Centre’s opening hours to 350 days and provide an additional 1,248 bed nights.

Please read our Respite Centre Business Case for funding and we have provided a template letter should you wish to contact your local Oireachtas member to help us advocate for this essential service. Both of these can be found below.

MS Ireland launched their campaign for additional funding for the National MS Respite Centre to expand its opening to 350 days per annum and providing an additional 1,248 bed nights annually. MS Ireland is seeking an additional €627,000 funding from the Government to increase respite availability to people with Multiple Sclerosis and other neurological conditions. This can help alleviate pressure points increasingly developing in the residential and home respite care sectors.

Senator Tom Clonan (Ind), speaking at the funding request launch today said “Ireland is an outlier within the EU when it comes to respite and care.  The requirement for funding to expand respite is the very minimum that should be done - particularly when we have a budget surplus”.

Ava Battles, Chief Executive Officer of MS Ireland also speaking at the launch said, “Our Respite Centre provides a modern state-of the-art respite service, which focuses not just on providing a break for the People living with MS and their caregivers, but delivers a range of therapeutic services, neurological assessments and many social activities, all designed to revitalise and rejuvenate and help keep people living with neurological conditions well at home”.

The MS Readathon is back!

Throughout November, the rather wonderful MS Readathon takes place in schools and homes across Ireland.

Visit www.msreadathon.ie to sign up and support the MS Community

You can join our conference on Saturday, 16th September from anywhere around the world on Facebook Live!

I don’t want to dive into a long list of criticisms of myself, my life and how I could have done things better. That would be the easy way to approach this article and god knows I traumatise myself with these thoughts regularly enough. Life is always easier when looked at with the benefit of hindsight. Rather, I would like to look at this through more forgiving eyes. Sure, I made mistakes and could have gone about things in a more positive, productive way but I say this with the benefit of lots of experience and from learning things the hard way. I did the best I could with limited knowledge at the time. 

So, let’s dive in - what have I learnt that could have helped if I had come to the realisations earlier. 

We are delighted to be partnering with the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) Physiotherapy team to offer in-person physio classes led by their students and tutor in the MS Care Centre starting this October!