Martin McGee, service user at Stewarts Care, is a man of many talents. He is 32 years of age and has been attending Stewarts Care as a day service user from an early age.

Martin attends Mill Lane daily which is a training centre at Stewarts Care that carry out a wide range of activity including creative arts, the performing arts, horticulture and pottery. There Martin has developed a true passion for working with textiles and one of his ongoing projects has been to knit hats for premature babies which he supplies to the Coombe Hospital. Mick Kelly who is a staff member at Mill Lane and who has been working with Martin since his preschool days talks enthusiastically about this project.

“Martin has a real talent for textiles. This project of supplying hats for premature babies at the Coombe is really very important to him.”

His creative talents also include his love of wood and sticks and he is always creating structures and creative art projects. One of his creations was a ‘gate’ made out of sticks which won a prize at the ‘Tinahely Agriculture Show.’ Spurred on by the prize, he has now moved on to currently making his own self-contained hut from wood out in the garden in Mill Lane.

As well as his creative enterprises, he is also a lover of horses and rides horses every Wednesday in Kilcloon with Stewarts Care.

As if all of this was not enough, he is a competitive bowler and plays in regular bowling competitions. He is hoping to get a new bowling ball for Christmas, Martin tells us. Also a wrestling fanatic and a Liverpool supporter, it would seem there is no end to his activities and interests.

Martin lives at home with all his family and comes to Mill Lane at Stewarts Care every day to follow all his creative pursuits and passions.

“He loves chat and you can have a great conversation with him. He has a great sense of humour. In the future, he hopes to live independently.”

Given all his pursuits and endeavours, there is no doubt he will.