Family highlight need to celebrate what makes us different
By Aura McMenamin
ONE TALLAGHT mother has highlighted the need to celebrate what makes us different as humans, following World Down Syndrome Day which took place on March 21.
Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21, which is why World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on March 21.
Amy and Angela at home in Tallaght
The condition is typically associated with physical growth delays and mild to moderate intellectual disability.
Tallaght mother Angela Lee’s 16-year-old daughter Amy has Down Syndrome. For many parents, this diagnosis might come as a shock however for Angela, this was not the case.
“Worldwide, people are starting to celebrate what people with Down Syndrome can do, not what they can’t do,” Angela Lee told The Echo
“I tried very hard to get pregnant. I always wanted to be a mother.
“Amy was born a month early. The doctors took her to an incubator and came back after an hour….I thought they were going to tell me she had died.”
Angela said the doctors told her they suspected that her baby girl had Down Syndrome – and Angela replied, “Is that all?”
“She was a miracle baby”, Angela told The Echo.
Amy attended mainstream national school and spent eight years at St Anne’s primary school in Fettercairn before moving to St John of God’s in Islandbridge.
Like her mother, Amy loves the music of Neil Diamond and John Denver, but she’s also crazy about Kylie Minogue.
“She loves princesses and she loves her Barbies,” Angela said.
Down Syndrome Ireland held their third annual Purple Run in Phoenix Park on Saturday to help celebrate World Down Syndrome Day.
Angela said that thanks to campaigns and awareness days, the public’s understanding of what people with Down syndrome can achieve has improved since Amy was a child.
“People told me that she might not walk, that she might not talk, that she may never attend a mainstream school.
“Well, she started walking when she was two and started talking when she was four and now she never stops.
“She went to a mainstream primary school. She did all of those things.”
For further information visit the Down Syndrome Ireland website, www.downsyndrome.ie
