Last chance to book your place – SMA Community Gathering.
Dear friends
A wee reminder of the closing dates to book your place for our summer Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Community Gathering which takes place on Tuesday 20 August at the Mullingar Park Hotel:
Monday 5 August is the final day for young people to book a place
Tuesday 13 August is the final day for adults to book a place
(Bookings for under 5s are now closed).
SMA Ireland and Muscular Dystrophy Ireland together are delighted to invite you to a day filled with connection, shared experiences, learning and fun to mark SMA Awareness month. We welcome people living with SMA and their families. The programme includes:
Fun activities including Junior Einstein’s Science Workshop for children and young people aged 5 to 17 years living with SMA, and their siblings
Sessions for adults living with SMA
Sessions for parents and family members of people living with SMA
Opportunities for everyone to come together.
We are delighted to welcome the following speakers:
Marianne Dwyer is a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist, and certified teacher in meditation and mindfulness. She facilitates online courses and in-person workshops for MDI members.
Niamh Gartland, MISCP BSc Physio MCORU, is a senior physiotherapist with Barefootphysio. She has specialised in paediatrics and neurorehabilitation since graduating from UCD’s BSc Physiotherapy programme and has experience in providing physiotherapy to children and adults with SMA. Niamh recently attended the 2024 SMA Masterclass with UMC Utrecht in the Netherlands, a world centre for excellence in SMA. She completed training in Cuevas Medek Exercises (CME) level 1 in Toronto in 2021 Dynamic Movement Intervention (DMI) levels B and C in 2024, which she uses extensively in her practice. DMI/CME is a form of therapy that is widely used to help children develop their gross motor skills by engaging them with challenging tasks to provoke new movement skills. She also has an interest in play-based and functional task specific rehabilitation, using children’s preferred sports, games and interests to guide and enhance their therapy.
Dr Aoife McNicholl is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and was previously the Universal Design Coordinator in Dublin City University. Aoife is a board member of Independent Living Movement Ireland and member of the National Task Force for Digital and Assistive Technology in the HSE. As a disabled person, she has been involved in advocacy campaigns with the Irish Wheelchair Association on accessible housing and the government on UNCRPD
Emer O’Sullivan is 26 years old, from County Laois and has SMA type 3. She has graduated with a BSc in Genetics and Cell Biology and an MSc in Data Analytics for Precision Medicine. She is pursuing her professional career and living independently in Dublin. Emer enjoys travelling, crafts, swimming and playing powerchair football, as well as spending time with family and friends. She lives by the motto, “she believed she could so she did”.
Jonathan O’Grady co-founded SMA Ireland and is also honorary president of the Irish Wheelchair Association. A lifelong wheelchair user, Jonathan has SMA type II. He lives in Dublin where he runs the business consultancy, O'Grady Advisors.
You can find out more information and book your place here.
We hope you can join us! If you have any questions about the event, please don’t hesitate to contact Dympna Mulroy on mdiresearch@mdi.ie.
Kindly supported by an independent grant from Roche. Roche have had no editorial influence over the content.
