A stroke left her unable to read or write – but Máirín Ní Bheacháin still followed her design dreams

Meet the woman behind Mise Collars, a new lease on life for the former project manager and primary school teacher.

Máirín Ni Bheacháin Mise Collars by Máirín Ni Bheacháin

Máirín Ní Bheacháin has gone down many career paths. She is good at, and interested in, many things — from art and design, to literature and music — and has worked variously in the restaurant business, as a project manager and as primary school teacher. However, a life-changing event set Ní Bheacháin on a creative journey which now sees her work as an image consultant, stylist and public speaker who recently established a new accessories brand: Mise Collars.

Ní Bheacháin was a 35-year-old teacher and mother of two very young children when she began to notice pins and needles, feelings of weakness and loss of power accompanied by changes to her skin, persistent headaches and weight loss. Her hands began trembling and she often felt weak. “I’d be walking along and would suddenly go limp,” she says. “I was finding everyday things like pushing a buggy a challenge.”