Borrisokane woman launches funding MS Readathon and encourages young and old to read

Tipperary woman and MS Ireland ambassador Ciara O’Meara helped launch this year's fundraising MS Readathon.

The MS Readathon is back for its 36th year and will take place during November.

MS Ireland is asking thousands of readers young and old to take part in raising awareness and vital funds to support the 10,000 people living with MS, the most common debilitating neurological condition affecting young adults in Ireland.

The MS Readathon is Ireland’s biggest sponsored reading initiative when young readers in schools throughout Ireland raise funds for vital services. The campaign is MS Ireland’s oldest and most anticipated event each year, originally launched by Roald Dahl in 1988 and has grown ever since. 

The fundraising campaign has been popular among schoolchildren, but over the last few years MS Ireland is encouraging "grown up" readers to take part and get their offices, clubs and families to rediscover their love of reading. 

Ciara O'Meara, from Borrisokane, a lecturer in General Nursing at the University of Galway, has lived with MS or the past 15 years.

Speaking of why she is a ambassador this year for the MS Readathon Ciara said: “I can vividly remember the excitement that surrounded the arrival of the MS Readathon posters and cards to my primary school. The MS Readathon provides an opportunity for us to sit with the magic of books, and who doesn't need some magic in their lives.

“As a child, I looked forward to this event every year - the smell of new books, the adventures within the pages, the hope, the magic and the escape that reading provided. That feeling of getting so lost within a book that you thought you were actually one of Enid Blyton's Famous Five.

“That little child had no idea what a full circle the MS Readathon would become within her life. That the sponsorship she so eagerly sought from family and friends to read the most books within the classroom, would be put towards services and supports that she would need to avail of later in her own life”.

“Books are a means of escape, hope and magic and what make the MS Readathon so special, for children and adults alike. For children it supports their literacy skills, their creativity and their imagination can run wild - and for adults, it allows the exact same. 

“Through reading there is hope, and through the MS Readathon there comes hope for better services, better resources and an eventual cure for people living with MS. That is why I am so delighted to be taking part in the 'Grown Up Readathon' this year”. 

Ava Battles, Chief Executive of MS Ireland said: “For many children, the MS Readathon is the first time that they connect with books and literature and develop a lifelong love of reading. The MS Readathon is so important to MS Ireland and the MS community. It is our biggest fundraising campaign, and we simply cannot keep our services running without it. 

Every year, the MS Readathon raises thousands of euro whilst assisting children to greatly improve their literacy skills and encourage participants to foster a lasting love of reading.

Anybody young and old can sign up to participate from www.msreadathon.ie