TRALEE STUDENTS TAKE THE FIGHT TO LYME DISEASE

RAISING awareness of Lyme Disease has been the focus of an intensive project by Transition Year students from Presentation Secondary School in Tralee for the past year, a project that saw them contest the finals of the ‘ECO UNESCO Young Environmentalist Award’ at Dublin’s Mansion House last week.

The project is called ‘Give an X to Ticks’ and the students took to the streets of Tralee last February to raise awareness of Lyme Disease. The girls have also contacted Tick Talk Ireland, which is a national body set up to spread awareness of the disease, while GP practices and veterinary clinics have also been contacted by the students.

Their research discovered that many people are still unaware of what Lyme Disease is, how it starts, how it’s contracted, and what to do if bitten by a tick. Removing the bug safely is essential to preventing the spread of infection.

“We were delighted to head to Dublin, but what’s more important is that many people still don’t know of the dangers of Lyme Disease,” said pro- ject member, Niamh Rahilly. “People in Tralee were very responsive to our project and we basically want to start a conversation about Lyme Disease.”

“Anywhere there’s relatively long grass can present a risk of being bitten. Through the course of our research in Tralee we got many signatures from people and we’ve also spoken with local councillors to help us in our campaign. We hope to continue the project and we spoke with John Brassil TD this week. He has also agreed to help us.”

Students from Presentation Secondary School display their project on Lyme Disease: Niamh Rahilly, Ruth O’Connell and Amy O’Sullivan (missing is Aine O’Sullivan).