Creating Awareness

Awareness

Many of our members and friends host events and participate in activities throughout Ireland to raise awareness and funds for Huntington's Disease. This includes social nights, golfing sponsorships, line dancing, school events, charity swims and participating in organised events including Mini Marathons, Balla Walk, Dublin and Cork marathons. Such events often generate interest from local newspapers and radio stations and give people an insight into problems HD families face.

Primetime Investigates

Primetime Investigates 30th May 2011 featured the effects of health cuts on a number of peple waiting for treatment and care. Rosemary and Michael courageously told their story to help create awareness for HD. See Hope Newsletter Q2 11

Better Together

HDAI submitted a video for the Autumn 2010 Better Together competition -  A national awareness Campaign to create awareness and encourage community and voluntary activity. Thanks to all those who contributed.HDAI Better Together video

Woody Guthrie Tribute Night

Andy Irvine hosted a moving tribute to Woody Guthrie to mark the 40^th anniversary of his death. We received nationwide public awareness when Derek Mooney’s RTE 1 radio show interviewed Andy Irvine on the day 3/10/2007. Andy gave a very interesting account of Woody’s life and sang some songs. He talked about Huntington’s Disease and mentioned the consequences for families living with HD. Catherine Paradise, our committee member, was also interviewed on the programme and discussed her father’s illness and her ‘at risk’ status before she received a favourable test result. Catherine also mentioned the work of HDAI.

RTÉ Radio One ‘Mind Matters’ wins award for |HD programme

Mind Matters is a science series that looks at conditions of the human brain, and its ability to function and recover after trauma. The second series of Mind Matters featured Huntington's Disease on March 6th 2007 at 8.30pm. Presenter and producer Ella McSweeney talked to Galway-born scientist Michael Conneally who helped to isolate the gene in 1993, Geneticist Professor Patrick Morrison who talked about environment and other genes possibly having an effect on the onset of HD. Geneticist Sarah Duke from the National Centre for Medical Genetics who spoke about the scientific aspect of the testing procedure. Dr Anthony Hannan an Australian scientist discussed his research work on exploring how genes and the environment interact in the brain at molecular and cellular levels. The programme also featured family members including the heart-rending story of a family who are affected by the condition.

This programme won the Speech Programming award in the Phonographic Performance Ireland (PPI) Radio Awards, on 19/10/2007. The awards, established by the PPI and the BCI (Broadcasting Commission of Ireland), celebrate the art and skill of radio production and programming. For more information see http://www.rte.ie/radio1/mindmatters/

You can subscribe to the series as a podcast - the feed is http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_mindmatters.xml

Awareness Poster Campaign

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RTÉ Panel Discussion on Huntington's Disease

On Tuesday 22nd March 2006, RTÉ RADIO 1 hosted a panel discussion on Huntington's Disease which featured on Outside the Box, a programme for and about people with disability. Presented by Olan Mc Gowan, the programme also featured an interview with Rachel Sarah Murphy (Fair City).