Ms Ava Battles:

Each of the individual neurological organisations tries to create awareness about specific conditions. For example, we recently had the MS Ireland MSunderstood café roadshow. People only knew they were entering a coffee shop but they were able to experience some of the symptoms of living with MS. The minute people came in the door, they felt unbalanced by the uneven floor. When they ordered their latte or whatever, the writing on the menu board started to blur to give them the sensation of having blurred vision. People with MS have informed us that when they are diagnosed, they often do not know what the disease is and their families certainly do not know what is. Family members of an MS sufferer tend to perceive it as an older person condition and assume the person with the condition will end up in a wheelchair. There is a need to increase awareness.

GPs were mentioned. People with MS now visit colleges to address medical students training to become our doctors and nurses and talk to them about what it is like to experience the condition to give them a better sense of that. There is much more public patient involvement taking place, which is important.

There is unity in working together. In that context, we work with the DFI and the NAI in the context of the campaigns they run to try to create awareness among the general population about neurological conditions in general. Many people do not have a sense of these conditions unless they have come to his or her door. People have no idea about the rare diseases the Deputy mentioned. We try to work with the DFI and the NAI to create awareness among the general population.