Laura McQuaid recently celebrated her 40th birthday. It is clear from speaking with Suzanne, staff member of Clarkeville, that Laura has a great attitude to life and is very ambitious. When Laura came to Stewarts Care initially she lived in Stewarts Care community housing. She is now living in a fully independent apartment, with the support of the Independent Living Team. This is a tribute to her strength of character and resilience.

Laura works in Clarkeville, the flower shop located on the main street in Palmerstown where she has been working since the shop opened. She loves dealing with customers and is very involved with everything that goes on in the local community.

Laura has fantastic family support behind her. They are always there supporting her in everything she does and she is always straight onto her family WhatsApp group sharing her incredible achievements!

Laura carried out the PATH (Programme to Access for Higher Education) programme in Stewarts Care and defined one of her goals was to go for a driving lesson. With the help of staff members, they discovered a secure location for Laura to carry out this lesson. Leinster Driving Campus, an off-road centre for driving lessons facilitated Laura with her request. Laura, along with another service user visited the centre where they were taught how to drive an automatic car.

Laura simply wanted to see what it was like to drive a car, to be the one turning the wheel, to be the one indicating and to be the one in control of driving the car. Laura did fantastically and so much so she has decided to carry out more lessons throughout 2020.