{"id":503884,"date":"2026-06-17T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503884\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T06:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:52:13","slug":"former-primary-school-classmates-organise-solidarity-walk-for-eoin-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503884\/","title":{"rendered":"Former primary school classmates organise solidarity walk for Eoin &#8211; News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">A Roscommon man\u2019s inspiring role in pioneering a thought-controlled wheelchair after receiving a groundbreaking brain implant has prompted a group of former classmates from his native Moore to organise a solidarity walk next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Eoin Egan (43), who has lived and worked in London since 2009, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in June 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">In December 2025, Eoin became one of just 23 people worldwide &#8211; and the only Irish patient &#8211; to receive a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) implant as part of a clinical trial. The implant, fitted during a six-hour surgery, connects to his laptop computer via Bluetooth and enables him to control it using thought alone by interpreting brain signals linked to imagined movement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Within days of the surgery, Eoin, alongside his wife Jenny and sister Ethel, adapted the technology to operate his wheelchair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Their innovation, developed in conjunction with German assistive technology company, Homebrace, has led to what is believed to be the first successful demonstration of a wheelchair controlled purely by thought.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/3854841_5_articleinline_Shine_20a_20light_20for_20Eoin1.jpg\" alt=\"Eoin\u2019s former classmates are organising a 5k solidarity walk, which will take place next month.\" title=\"Eoin\u2019s former classmates are organising a 5k solidarity walk, which will take place next month.\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Eoin\u2019s former classmates are organising a 5k solidarity walk, which will take place next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Since the  Roscommon Herald shared his remarkable story in May, the father-of-two said he has been \u201coverwhelmed\u201d by the huge level of support and good wishes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Now his 1995 classmates from St. Ciaran\u2019s NS in Moore have come together to organise a special meet up and 5k solidarity walk next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cOur first aim is simply to stand together as a community and show our friend that he is not on his own,\u201d said his classmates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The \u2018Shine a Light for Eoin\u2019 walk takes place on Friday, July 10th, starting at the Moore United soccer grounds (N37 FK25) in Falty, Moore. The meet-up is at 9.30 p.m. with the walk commencing at 10 p.m..<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">On the night, the pitch will be lit up with candles and the evening will be recorded so that Eoin and his family will be able to see the support surrounding them. Fundraising events are being planned to support him and his family, beginning with a spinathon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A Facebook Page \u2018Light for Eoin\u2019 has also been set up to share information about the walk, related messages, photos and fundraising updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Roscommon man\u2019s inspiring role in pioneering a thought-controlled wheelchair after receiving a groundbreaking brain implant has prompted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-503884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}