The overall aim of this project was to create awareness on both a local and national level about Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) and to reduce the amount of people dying from this condition. Ideally, the group were hoping to get mandatory screening brought in to the health system in Ireland. Whilst they could not decide to implement mandatory screening, they could take a course of action that would hopefully influence the health service to do so. Furthermore, they tried to encourage parents to bring their children forward for screening and also those who would be heavily involved in sports.
In 2011 the issue became personal. The group lost a classmate, Darra. They were all deeply hurt by this loss and wanted to protect other communities from the pain they suffered.
They felt that the number of people dying from SADS annually in Ireland was substantial. The symptoms of SADS can be highlighted easily through health screening which is why their main aim was to attain fee screening for teenagers in Ireland.
The Action
Throughout the project they worked with many different people in their local community and across the country. They were delighted to see that so many people were willing to support them. The main people with whom they worked were the local doctors, the Irish Heart Foundation, West Limerick 102FM, Spin South West, Patrick O’Donovan TD, Heart Aid, The Weekly Observer and Limerick Leader newspapers, The Irish Red Cross, local sports coaches, the FAI, GAA, and IRFU.
They also planned to work with the Dáil Health Committee, Minister for Health James O’Reilly and An Taoiseach Enda Kenny. They contacted Patrick O’Donavan, TD to see if he would take the project to Dail Eireann. They sent letters to major organisations in Ireland like the IRFU, FAI and GAA, telling them about the project and inviting them to a meeting that Mr. O’Donavan organised with the Minster for Health and the Dail Health Committee.
The Impact
160 students in their school were screened by a company called Heart Aid. They started a petition which gained over 30,000 signatures, they went on local radio and featured the project in newspapers.
Their plans for the future were to continue to raise awareness of the project on Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. They were determined to not stop until they achieved free screening for people in Ireland under the age of twenty-five. Their scheduled meeting with Enda Kenny and James O’Reilly was extremely important to them as it would hopefully persuade the government to implement free screening. Finally, they also planned to train the coaches of local sports clubs to make sure they knew basic resuscitation skills.
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