Living with Motor Neuron Disease
By Andy McGovern
Andy McGovern was born on a small farm near Aughavas in County Leitrim in 1933 and, like other rural children of the time, shared in his families’ seasonal work of sewing crops, saving hay and turf and harvesting potatoes and oats. From his parents’ generation, which worked so hard to survive in the poor decades of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, he believes he inherited his strength of will and ability to call on the inner hero to deal with adversity. In the 1950s, like so many of his peers, he immigrated to London, where he was involved in construction and bar work. He married a local girl and they return to live in Leitrim in 1964. Andy had established a successful machinery contracting business and had six young children when, at the age of forty-three, in 1976, he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease and told he had two to five years to live. Thirty-eight years later he is still walking, talking, having fun and drinking Guinness through a straw in McCaffery’s pub in Aughavas, although he has completely lost the use of his arms and hands. His story of how he dealt with the shocking diagnosis and the equally shocking prognosis and rediscovered his will to live and enjoy nature, his surroundings, his children, grandchildren and friends is an inspiration one. Andy is the longest surviving person in Ireland with motor neuron disease and his hip replacement was a medical first in 2011.
Selling Points.
Inspirational story of survival against the odds with a terminal disease.
All proceeds go to the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association.
A Tuesday with Morrie for Ireland, where there are more than three hundred people with MND.
About the Author.
Andy McGovern, the author and hero of Against the Odds, lives in Sunnamore, Cloone, in County Leitrim. He has two sons and four daughters and is active In the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association, Casa, (Caring and Sharing Association) and the Irish Leitrim Wheelchair Association as well as Honorary President of the Leitrim Association of People with Disabilities.
ISBN:—978-1-907535-29-1. Price: – €14 99 / £12 19. Format: Paperback 216 X 135.
Extent: 240 pages. Publication: February 2013. Category: Memoir.
Book Available post-free: www.imnda.ie www.londubh.ie. Eason’s, – Amazon and other book outlets!