Lecture #5

 On the 16th of October we had a lecture from Mark Pollock. Mark Pollock is blind and paralysed (from the chest down) and he's a motivational speaker. Mark told us his story and about how we should learn lessons from his struggles.
  In 1998 Mark was a student in Trinity College. Over the space of a month or two Mark began to grow blind. Soon later, Mark was completely blind. Mark fell into depression and was in denial of his loss of sight. He most certainly did not bounce back from his injury. He stayed in his home for a while until he realised that being blind was just an inconvenience and a challenge. He decided to face up to the challenge and to live in the present. Mark told us how we too should be brave enough to accept reality.
 10 years later (2008) Mark was back working hard. He had just recieved a masters in college, he was giving lectures about becoming blind and he had been running marathons. He acheived all of these things while being blind. His biggest challenge was travveling to the South pole with a team of two other men.
   Marks life once again came crashing down when he fell of the balcony of a second storey. Mark was but in hospital and was there for 18 months. Mark was then completly paralysed from the chest down. He fell into depression again for a short while but people told him that he could recover from depression because he had done so before. Mark was then put in a wheelchair and he's accepted his disability.
 Mrk flew to California to visit a company called 'Project Walk'. This was an orgainisation set up to help people who are paralysed to walkn again. He worked hard in the gym and has begun to gain power of certain parts of his body. His friend Simon was trained at the gym and now helps Mark with his training everyday in UCD.
Mark also flew to Berkely in the USA where a robotic suit was being developed by a company called ESKO.The skeloton suit was attatched to Mark and this allows him to walk. He does not use this all of the time as the product is still being developed. Mark says that companies like ESKO and Project walk are excellent as they ware changing the rules of what can and can't be done.
Mark then wet on to tell us about the Run For Mark. This is a charity marathon set up in cities around the world.