Hair raising event makes €21K for Galway speech and occupational therapy

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Written by Avril Horan

Wednesday, 05 September 2007

A hair raising event has made Galway proud by raising €21,000 in a bid to cut the four and a half year waiting list for speech and occupational therapy in the city.

The ‘hair today, gone tomorrow’ event, which took place at The Radisson Hotel on Saturday 9 June, saw people shaving their heads, waxing their legs, backs and armpits for the Making Galway Proud Initiative. The money raised will help Voices For Galway, a group of parents of Down Syndrome children, who are campaigning to shorten the huge waiting list for a service that is so important to their children.

Last month, the Galway Independent highlighted how the Government’s failure to fund new posts for 100 speech and language graduates has impacted on Galway parents. Secretary of Voices for Galway, Monica McAnenna, said the jobs crisis was ‘devastating’ for local parents of children with Downs Syndrome.

A new four-year course was set up at NUI, Galway and University College Cork in 2003 to tackle the shortage of speech and language therapists in Ireland. A two-year masters course was also set up at the University of Limerick. Those graduates are now facing a jobless future in Ireland despite a four and a half year waiting list for speech and language services in Galway.

“It’s devastating for parents,” said Monica, who has an eight-year-old son David, with Down Syndrome. “It doesn’t make any sense. There was a light of hope when the speech and language courses were set up in 2003. We hoped the climate would change, as there would no longer be a shortage of therapists in Galway. Now we find out they are not going to be employed. It is soul destroying,” she said.

The Making Galway Proud Initiative is working hard on their 2007 campaign to raise as much awareness and funding to help shorten the huge waiting list. Last Saturday, another fundraiser was held in association with O’Dolan & Partners Auctioneers, Caríosa’s walk saw over 150 people come together and walk from the Docks to Blackrock to raise funds for Voices For Galway.

The 4th Annual Making Galway Proud Ball will take place on Saturday 6 October. The event which has come to take its place as one of the highlights on Galway’s social calendar will yet again raise funding and awareness for a very worthy cause in Galway. The initiative is unique in that it alternates local charities annually, in the past autism and the elderly have benefited hugely. For further information on this year’s projects, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .