Euan MacDonald Tribute Symposium 2025

In an eventful year for our small but mighty charity, Wednesday 8 October was certainly the most emotional day in our calendar.

We took part in A Tribute to Euan MacDonald, a symposium attended by almost 300 people which celebrated the life and achievements of our founder, Euan MacDonald MBE.

The afternoon session opened with speakers from the Euan MacDonald Centre, SpeakUnique and Euan’s Guide. Speaking for Euan’s Guide were Kiki, our Co-Founder and Euan’s sister; Joe, our Community Manager; and Antonia, our CEO.

Kiki told of how we got started back in 2013, when Euan had arranged to meet some old colleagues in Edinburgh. Euan and Kiki soon realised that they couldn’t think of an accessible venue with a suitable accessible toilet for the event.

As many disabled people do when access is uncertain, they stayed home.

That frustrating evening sparked the idea for Euan’s Guide, a website where disabled people and the people they spend time with could share honest reviews of venues so that others could find suitable places to go. Twelve years later, it has grown into a valuable resource used by hundreds of thousands of people each year.

The crowd were treated to a video featuring Euan, where he spoke about his diagnosis of Motor Neuron Disease (MND), the purpose of Euan’s Guide and the value of reviews from disabled people. The video closed with a heartfelt thanks to all our volunteers, ambassadors and reviewers.

Joe spoke about the lasting influence of Euan’s Guide on disabled people he had met on his trips across the UK. He shared a touching story of how a father to a disabled daughter had been able to create new family memories thanks to disabled access information hosted on Euan’s Guide.

Antonia shared her gratitude for the support we had received, reflected on a challenging 15 months and how Euan remained central to all we do.

Casting an eye to the future, she highlighted our forthcoming website relaunch, our 2025 Access Survey and how the work we do relies on the input and passion of our community.

We then heard from Olivia Szczerbakiewicz and Dr Oliver Watts of SpeakUnique, founded at the University of Edinburgh after Euan identified a need for personalised synthetic voices. They shared how SpeakUnique not only captures but also repairs the voices of people at risk of losing the ability to speak, helping them preserve their identity and providing a voice that is authentically theirs.

Next, three brilliant researchers – Dr Hannah Smith, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh; Jade Lucas, PhD student at the University of Edinburgh; and Dr Hatice Bozkurt, Clinical PhD Fellow at the University of Edinburgh – spoke passionately about their work to diagnose, treat and better understand MND. They each managed to make complex science easy to understand, which is no mean feat.

Finally, we heard from Professor Siddharthan Chandran, Director of the Euan MacDonald Centre; Professor Suvankar Pal, Vice Principal and Head of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh; and Bruce Virgo, MND/ALS advocate and member of the MND-SMART Patient Advisory Group.

They spoke about MND-SMART, an innovative drug trial designed to speed up the search for medicines that could slow, stop or even reverse the progression of MND, with Bruce sharing insight into the patient experience.

Our thoughts

Reflecting on the day, our team had much to say.

Volunteer Coordinator Zoe captured the feeling perfectly, saying:

“It was such a great day to celebrate a great man. It was very moving to be in the room with so many people who had been brought together by Euan and his family. Everyone had the same aim of supporting disabled people.”

Head of Development and Partnerships Julie reflected on the sheer number of people united by the same cause:

“To be in one room with so many people who were all doing such different things, but we all had Euan in common, was really moving. It felt like we belonged to something so much bigger than just Euan's Guide (and Euan's Guide was awesome, so that said a lot).”

Review Coordinator Molly highlighted the wide-reaching impact of Euan and his family:

“It was really incredible to see the wide-reaching impact of Euan and the MacDonald family. I really enjoyed hearing about the work that was happening in so many different places and seeing how passionate everyone was about what they were doing was really energising.”

Volunteer Coordinator Claire shared her pride in being part of the celebration and continuing Euan’s legacy: “I was honoured to be invited to such an amazing event to celebrate the legacy that Euan built throughout his life. It was great to be in a room with Euan’s family and everyone he had worked with who shared the same passion to improve the lives of people with a disability.”

Review Coordinator Pat said: “I learned so much about MND and medical research in general. Everyone did a fantastic job of presenting their work in a way that was engaging and easy to understand for a layperson. Seeing the hard work of so many brilliant people made me hopeful for the future.”

It was an emotional day for all in attendance, but it was also a wonderful reminder of the impact of Euan’s legacy, how his impact continues to grow and how none of this would be possible without the support of a dedicated community committed to making a difference in the lives of disabled people.

People just like you.