The UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School MBA ball is held every year as a celebration for the students successfully completing the MBA programme.

Each year we choose to support a charity so that we can contribute to a good cause from the event. This year we have chosen to support Fr. Tony Coote and the ‘Walk While You Can’ campaign (www.wwyc.ie) with our own event ‘Ball While You Can’. Fr. Tony is raising awareness and funds for Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (https://imnda.ie) and Research Motor Neurone (http://mnd.ie). 

Fr. Tony Coote is a former Chaplin of UCD and the current Chaplin in the Mount Merrion and Kilmacud Parishes in Dublin. Fr. Tony was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in March of this year. MND is a progressive disease involving degeneration of the motor neurones and the wasting of muscles.

Fr. Tony has achieved a lot in his life. Notably, founding the registered charity UCD Volunteers Overseas and the Please Talk Campaign to support students in 3rd level colleges in Ireland. Fr. Tony is a man who tackles challenges and issues head-on and he has done the same in the face of his MND diagnosis and prognosis.  

Tony set about Walking the length of Ireland (Letterkenny to Ballydehob) from July to August 2018 to raise awareness and funds to support the 400+ suffers of MND in Ireland and vital research into finding a cure/new treatments for MND. Tony completed his walk in a wheelchair and raised over €250k for IMNDA and RMN in the process. 

At present, there is still no cure for MND. We would really appreciate it if you could help us in our efforts to support Tony in raising awareness of MND, funds to support MND suffers in Ireland and vital research to help find a cure and better treatment for this disease. 

Any donation/contribution you may be able to give to Fr. Tony and the IMNDA and RMN would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, The MBA Classes of 2018