Trinity experts in Motor Neurone Disease support Walk While You Can campaign

Posted on: 09 July 2018

Experts in Motor Neurone Disease (MND) research from Trinity are seeking to increase awareness and raise badly needed funds for new research into the devastating neurodegenerative condition, by supporting the Walk While You Can campaign that will see MND patient, Fr. Tony Coote, and hundreds of volunteers walk the length of Ireland over the next four weeks.

Fr. Coote was diagnosed with MND (also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) earlier this year and decided to embark on the walk in order to raise funds and to highlight the urgent need for further funding in this area. He will be joined on his journey by Professor of Neurology and Academic Director of the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Orla Hardiman, and a large number of Trinity researchers from her group, along with other volunteers from the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA) and the SFI FutureNeuro Centre.

You can find out more about the specific route, which winds from Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, to Ballydehob, Co. Cork, and which is broken down into 28 different stages of varying lengths, at: http://wwyc.ie/. People are warmly welcomed to join the walk, or stages of it, to support the cause.

MND is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that strikes in midlife, and kills one person every two days in Ireland. People with MND experience rapidly progressive and ultimately fatal declines in their ability to move their muscles, to speak and to swallow. Half of those affected experience a decline in their ability to process information and manage their behaviour. Professor Hardiman’s groundbreaking research at Trinity has also shown that MND overlaps with other more common brain conditions including dementia and schizophrenia.

Professor Hardiman said: “There is currently no effective treatment for MND and in the past 15 years over 40 clinical trials of new treatments in humans have failed. Now is the time to move to a new precision-medicine-based approach towards treatment, but to achieve this we need a radical change in how we approach our research.”

“We now recognise that it is essential for MND researchers across Europe to join forces to capitalise on our individual strengths and to build on new and creative approaches that enhance our collective scientific expertise. It is also imperative that we include those, such as Fr. Coote, who are experiencing the disease first-hand. By working together we have a better chance of succeeding in our shared goal to find a treatment for MND.”

“We want to have the right drug in the right dose, for the right patient at the right time.”

By supporting and participating in the Walk While You Can campaign, Trinity joins other Centres of Excellence in Ireland, Holland, the UK, France, Belgium and Italy in a campaign to solve the problems of finding new treatments for MND.

Ireland has excelled in patient categorisation for many years, capitalising on the natural research strengths within the Irish population (epidemiology, genetics, bioengineering and quality of life) and the scientific expertise within Professor Hardiman’s MND Research Group in Trinity.

The Walk While You Can campaign will raise funds for specific research initiatives in Ireland that will enhance and share expertise with colleagues in Europe to bring better and more effective trials to those with MND. More information (and a donations page) can be found at: https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/11368954_walk-while-you-can.html