Epilepsy Ireland are pleased to announce the recipients of our volunteers of the year for 2023 – and they are – Rachel Langan from Co. Galway and Mark McGuire from Co. Kildare!
Every year since our 50th anniversary in 2016, we have named volunteers of the year, and the importance of our volunteers was formally recognised within our Strategic Plan 2022 – 2026 under the strategic aim of “Centring people with epilepsy and their families in the work of Epilepsy Ireland.”
The Volunteer of the Year award is a small token of appreciation of the outstanding efforts an individual or a group of individuals have undertaken in support of Epilepsy Ireland and highlights the importance of volunteering within our organisation. When our team sets about choosing our volunteers of the year, it highlights to everyone working for the organisation how fortunate we are to have the support of incredible people from across the country who are committed to both raising awareness of epilepsy and raising the necessary funds that are required to continue our journey towards a society where no person’s life is limited by epilepsy.
There have been enormous contributions across the year by so many, but this year we wanted to formally acknowledge the efforts of both Rachel and Mark. But who are our volunteers of the year for 2023? First up, Rachel!
Rachel was a leaving cert student in 2022 and had also been diagnosed with epilepsy earlier that year. At the time, one of our key advocacy campaigns was for access to deferred Leaving Cert examination for students with epilepsy who may experience a seizure during their exam(s) and were unable to complete it due to the impact of their seizure. While progress was made on this front in 2022, the measures that were introduced stopped short of our proposals. Unfortunately, Rachel experienced a seizure during her Leaving Cert history exam, which meant she was unable to complete her exam – something we had always argued was inherently unfair. Rachel, with the support of Epilepsy Ireland, spoke to both the Irish Times and RTÉ Drivetime to share her experience of this issue to help amplify our calls to have this issue addressed. We fully believe that Rachel being so brave in doing this came at a critical time in our campaign and led to this issue being fully resolved earlier this year. This change will be of huge benefit to future generations of students with epilepsy and it gave our team great pleasure to recognise Rachel’s contribution by naming her one of our volunteers of the year for 2023! Congratulations and thank you Rachel! You can learn more about the history of our campaign to introduce deferred sittings of the leaving cert by visiting the Advocacy section of our website.
Mark McGuire is the second recipient of our Volunteer of the Year award for 2023. Many of our members, supporters and followers on social media will be familiar with Mark as his efforts in support of Epilepsy Ireland – in the name of his son Ciarán – have featured regularly in 2023, ever since he decided to take on the mammoth challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
Mark decided to take on Kilimanjaro in Ciarán’s name to raise funds for Epilepsy Ireland after Ciarán was diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy in 2022. As his challenge approached in August 2023, Mark is a shining example of how a fundraising effort for our organisation can also double up to raise awareness of epilepsy. Mark regularly shared his families’ story with epilepsy and the work of Epilepsy Ireland in the lead up to the challenge itself by speaking to local media outlets and using social media to raise awareness. If you’re wondering if Mark completed the challenge of Kilimanjaro – of course he did and he even had an Epilepsy Ireland flag to show off at the very top! A massive €8,271 was raised in support of our work and while the funds raised were incredible, the awareness Mark raised of epilepsy and Epilepsy Ireland as part of his training and preparation, was priceless. All this in the name of his son Ciarán! A huge thank you to Mark and we are proud to call you one of our Volunteers of the Year for 2023. You can listen to Mark speaking about his experience of climbing Kilimanjaro by listening to a podcast of interview he did with FM104 by visiting the Spotify website.
We would like to once again thank both Rachel and Mark for their enormous contributions to the work of Epilepsy Ireland and congratulations again on your award.
As noted, we are truly spoiled at Epilepsy Ireland with the incredible volunteers we can call upon and we would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of you for your support – we cannot tell you enough how vital your support is and how much we appreciate it. It is only together that we can achieve a society where no person’s life is limited by epilepsy, and we are confident that with your continued support, our vision will become a reality in the years to come.
Thank you.