Civically Engaged Activity
The winner of the Civic Activity Award for 2025 is Beth Corcoran from the DISCO (Down Syndrome, Infection and Clinical Outcomes) Research Group led by Professor Eleanor Molloy, Discipline of Paediatrics in the School of Medicine. She is also the mother to a young teenager with Down Syndrome.
Beth has designed a seven-week Health Awareness Programme for young teenagers with Down Syndrome. Its objective is to inform and educate them about current aspects of health research and to give them the language and learning tools to help maintain their own health and to self-advocate in terms of management of their health.
She has liaised with the DISCO group advocacy partner The Down Syndrome Centre in Sandyford, who are happy to facilitate its delivery at their centre during the months of May and June 2025. The Centre itself has a long history of supporting people with Down Syndrome and a dedicated coordinator who can actively liaise with families around the programme.
The programme sessions will be in person, interactive and will be delivered in age appropriate and accessible ways. They will focus on areas like anatomy, sleep, oral health, diet, vaccines and brain health, giving participants access to leading academic experts in these areas. In turn, it will give the academics an opportunity to engage with a fantastic group of teenagers and bring their research to a cohort of society that can sometimes be marginalised from the world of academia and research.
The hope is that, on delivery of this programme, it will form the basis of a programme that could be rolled out to teenagers with Down Syndrome in other parts of the country.