Tipperary’s Campaigner for Autism Services, Cara Darmody, is to visit Áras an Uachtaráin to meet with President Michael D. Higgins on June 24th. Prior to that Cara will be sitting the Leaving Certificate Maths exam as part of a fundraising campaign for Autism Services. The student who achieved 97% in the Junior Cert Maths Examination last year is 12 years old and currently attends primary school.
The young lady and her mother Noelle were both guests on Miriam O’Callaghan’s show over the weekend. Today she is to meet with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and will meet with former President Mary McAleese in July – Ms McAleese is currently Chancellor of Trinity College.
Cara will undertake what she calls the Mount Everest Maths Challenge on Friday June 9th and the funds are to be used to improve services in addition to raising awareness of the lack of services for those with autism. Cara has two brothers, John aged 6 and Neil aged 10, both of whom are severely autistic and non-verbal. The family are aware that 18,000 children are waiting on assessments. Timely assessments and therapies can make a big difference in outcomes for children. Ms Darmody secured a commitment from Disability Minister Anne Rabbitte that if 6 regional teams to address backlogs in the delivery of assessments are not in place by August 1st the State will pay for assessments to be done privately.
The funds raised via the Maths Challenge will go to cover the costs of Occupational Therapy and better resources in schools. The four charities to benefit are Cara’s local school Ardfinnan NS, Scoil Chormaic Special School Cashel – Neil and John attend the school, AsIAm, and Family Carers Ireland. The fundraiser is hosted on the GoFundMe Platform at this link here.
