Connacht Tribune
Galway woman refuses to let her reduced sight inhibit her zest for life
Kathleen Kennelly-Gorman was just 14 when the reality of an inherited genetic eye disorder sunk in. Stargardt disease meant she lost her central vision and had limited peripheral vision. Her dad has it – as do three of her sisters.
“For me it’s almost like there’s a veil over my eyes. Everything is fuzzy,” she explains. “I have to manoeuvre my head and eyes to focus on things to get the max out of my peripheral vision as I don’t have central vision. I’d have to bring things right up to me, I’d be like Mr Magoo.”
When they got the diagnosis while living in Buttevant, North County Cork, her parents went into denial. “It was a deep, dark secret in the family. We weren’t allowed to tell anybody. Years ago I thought they were mean. But it made us very, very independent in the end. Instead of mollycoddling us, they made us very strong.”
When Kathleen was told she could not do her Leaving Cert due to sight loss, she refused to accept that she could not continue her education.
She emigrated stateside where supports for sight loss were far more advanced. She completed the American High School Diploma. She went to college to train as a cosmetologist or beautician and eventually qualified as a massage therapist.
“I did a very extensive course outside San Francisco which covered nutrition, anatomy, psychology and wellbeing. I got readers, extra time for exams. It was the ‘80s and it was just too hard to study here.”
She moved to her then-husband’s native Portumna in 2001 and has never left.
“I’d be a fool to leave Portumna. I’m nearly stuck in everything. I do line dancing, I’m in Tidy Towns, the Active Retirement, the ICA. I’m a volunteer facilitator with the NCBI [National Council for the Blind of Ireland] Local Advocacy Network.”
Kathleen doesn’t have a guide dog and only uses a cane if she goes to Galway City or an unfamiliar town. She knows her way around Portumna and walks everywhere.
“It’s very easy to get around, very accessible. Everybody knows me. I do my own shopping although I often come home with the wrong item. My son mostly drops me to the supermarket and brings me home. Sometimes if friends are going, they’ll ask if I fancy coming along. I’m mad for road.”
In her spare time, she does tandem cycling and goes hiking with the Galway Visually Impaired Activities club set up in 2006. They usually cycle on Sundays in Connemara and go walking on Saturdays across various trails.
Kathleen spoke to the Connacht Tribune during a week-long cycling trip to Benidorm in Spain with twelve members of the group.
“We have a pilot, who is a sighted person who is in charge of gears, steering and signalling. We’re called the stokers who pedal like mad.”
Stargardt disease is caused by a recessive gene which affects the x chromosome. As a result, she didn’t pass on the condition to her son or daughter who are now in their early 20s.
Thanks to advances in technology, she can watch television, read books, keep up with texts and emails with audio description.
All the latest innovations will be among the many topics discussed at this year’s Retina annual conference for people with sight loss and their families. Latest figures show that there are approximately 272,000 people in Ireland living with blindness or vision impairment.
It returns to Dublin on Saturday, November 5, for its first in-person event since 2019, reveals spokesperson Don Delaney.
“Retina brings the sight loss community together with leading experts to hear about the latest treatments revolutionising eye care, to learn of the range of supports people can access, and to share stories and gain support from others on a similar journey.
“It offers an ideal opportunity for attendees to quiz the experts as to their own conditions and to find out about the promising developments taking place across a range of disease areas.”
Registration for the free conference that will be streamed live is open at fightingblindness.ie.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
