PS Cecilia loves the READaTHON
The 22-year-old daughter of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and author of PS I Love You teamed up with magician Keith Barry to launch this year’s MS READaTHON.
The event has raised €6 million for support services for people with MS since Roald Dahl set the children’s reading “marathon” on its way in 1988.
During the past 16 years the event has encouraged children to read more than three million books. Last year’s event set a fund record of 1.2 million for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. More than 32,000 schoolchildren, aged between six and 16, read 50,000 books over the four-week period in 2003.
Meanwhile, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland is urging people with MS who are experiencing difficulties to contact the charity for support.
The society’s statement came in response to the reported decision of MS sufferer Corkman Martin Barry to travel to Switzerland for an assisted suicide. In a heart-rending interview on RTE’s Marian Finucane radio show on Wednesday, Mr Barry described how he had made plans for his own death. He said he had gone from stage one to stage seven of the disease in five years.
“Mine was quite acute and when I asked my neurologist what the worst-case scenario was, he said two years. I did not want to end up in a nursing home requiring constant care in my 30s,” said Mr Barry.
The MS Society said: “Multiple Sclerosis is not terminal, does not reduce your life expectancy and assistance is very much available for people with MS or those who share their lives.” MS was not fatal. “It is a serious condition of the central nervous system and may have many symptoms, which vary in occurrence and severity from patient to patient.” Most people with MS lived a fulfilling and comfortable life.
More information on MS and the READaTHON is available at: www.ms-society.ie; telephone 1850 650 950.
