John and Liz McCarthy of Mad Pride Ireland have been invited by President Mary McAleese to attend her annual St. Patricks Day celebration at Aras An Uachtarain. The invite is in recognition for Cork Independent columnist McCarthy's work as a mental health campaigner, and in particular his fight against stigma in mental health.

He is the founder of the popular Mad Pride Family Fun Days and an organiser of the www.delete59b.com campaign to delete section 59b of the Mental Health Act 2001, which deals with forced Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

McCarthy said, "This is a great honour for me and a great testament to the work we have been doing over the past 10 years, the fight against stigma is a hard one but we have made great progress. Since we ran the first Mad Pride Family Fun Day in Cork in 2008 close to 20,000 people have attended our events, and we have branched out to the midlands and even Uganda."

"Mad Pride has also been invited by the HSE to host a Mad Pride Family Fun Day in Killarney on 22 May this year as an example of best practice in the fight against stigma as part of the International Conference they are hosting in the town.

"Things are getting very exciting for Mad Pride Ireland we now have the support of the HSE, Junior Minister Moloney and host of commercial and voluntary groups including Bord Gais, the One Foundation and SEI," he said.

"We will also be hosting our annual Cork event on 6 June in Fitzgerald's Park and we are in discussions about a possible event in Tullamore in July, we hope to see you all at one of our fun, free and wonderful events this year."

He continued, "People who want to learn more about Mad Pride Ireland can log on to our website www.madprideireland.ie and if you want to sign our petition to end forced ECT log on and sign up on www.delete59b.com. You can also keep in touch with us on our blog www.delete59b.wordpress.com."
Read John's column on page 30.

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