A Dublin college has announced a professorship in honour of a late priest who raised awareness for Motor Neurone Disease (MND)following his own diagnosis
Fr Tony Coote died last week after being diagnosed with motor neuron disease in February 2018. He was 55.
In his memory, Trinity College Dublin has appointed Dr Bahman Nassereloslami as the Tony Coote Assistant Professor in MND.
The college said Dr Nassereloslami has already made breakthrough discoveries in brain wave signalling in MND and his work will help to drive the quest for new and more effective treatments.
"Fr Coote will be sadly missed. He touched so many lives in the short time that we knew him," said Professor Orla Hardiman, Professor of Neurology at Trinity College, who diagnosed Fr Coote with MND in March 2018.
His commitment to raise awareness about MND was because he understood that this is not an untreatable disease, but an underfunded one. And as we seek to find new treatments for this tragic condition, we will draw inspiration from his legacy, and redouble our efforts on behalf of everybody affected by MND.
Fr Coote was the administrator of Mount Merrion and Kilmacud parishes in south Co Dublin.
He raised funds for research into the condition, including a 550km walk from Letterkenny, Co Donegal to Ballydehob, Co Cork last year, saying "unless there’s research, there will be no hope for people in the future". The charity walk took four weeks to complete and raised over €250,000 for MND research at Trinity College.
He helped raise €600,000 in total for MND research and his mammoth walk was captured in an RTÉ documentary. A fundraising 5km walk will take place in Dublin's Phoenix Park on September 14 inspired by Fr Coote's charity walk.
Fr Coote's memoir, Live While You Can, was published in recent months and A documentary about Tony Coote: “Walking The Walk” aired on RTE television in December 2018
