We’re delighted to day that the EMSP Spring Conference was a complete success! It was an honour to host the European MS community here in Dublin last week. For those of you who were unable to attend don’t worry, we will be publishing full reports from the sessions on our MS and Me Blog and over on our YouTube channel we’ll share videos of the presentations as soon as they are ready.
Until then here is a quick recap of the conference for you:
- Kathleen Lynch, Minister of State, Dept. of Health and Dept. of Justice, Equality & Defence, opened the conference with a very moving speech which had the entire room on its feet afterwards. Among other issues she raised about the most vulnerable people in our society being hit time and time again with cuts to services, Ms Lynch also revealed that her niece was recently diagnosed with MS.
- Unsurprisingly one of the most popular sessions of the conference was the Young People’s Focus. EMSP Believe & Achieve Project Coordinator Emma Rogan led the workshop while Shana Pezaro from the UK MS Society spoke of how her life changed for the better (eventually) following her MS diagnosis. George Pepper from Shift.ms told the room about his experiences with MS and how his organisation is trying to challenge young people to change their perspective after being diagnosed with MS.
- Prof Gavin Giovannoni and Dr Alexis Willet gave a brief update on the European Code of Good Practice in MS and called on neurologists to get more involved in further training.
- Anne Winslow launched the Ireland Under Pressure Video which featured the moving stories of three Irish people living with MS.
There were, of course, many more incredibly interesting topics covered over the two days of the conference so please check back to our website in the coming weeks for full reports. If you attended please share your experiences with us in the comments below.