Tributes have been paid to Euan MacDonald, one of the country’s leading campaigners for disabilities.
McDonald has died aged 50, having been diagnosed with motor neurone disease 21 years ago.
He and his father, Donald, set up the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research at the University of Edinburgh through a philanthropic gift in 2007.
He also inspired SpeakUnique a university spin-out, which uses state of the art speech technology to allow people to retain their identity and communicate in a voice that sounds like their own, when natural speech isn’t possible.
It uses voice banking, which is the process of recording your voice and using this recording to generate a personalised synthetic version. This can be used on devices, which turn text to speech. SpeakUnique technology offers voice banking to those with impaired speech through a Voice Repair service and also has a Voice Design service for those with no speech so they can choose how they sound.
“On behalf of the Euan MacDonald Centre, it is with immense sorrow that I am sharing the sad news that Euan MacDonald died today,” said Professor Siddharthan Chandran, Director of the Euan MacDonald Centre.
“Euan was an extraordinary man who through his vision, advocacy and leadership brought hope and helped transform the lives of countless people living with MND and other disabilities.
“As a direct result of this far-sighted investment, Scotland is now a leading global player in MND research from discovery science to clinical trials. This includes the landmark MND-SMART trial, the largest-ever drugs trial for MND in the UK.”
Professor Chandran added:
“Euan was very much a free spirit and again based on his experiences of living with disability, founded Euan’s Guide to empower others by providing information and choices enabling accessibility and freedom whilst out and about. The common thread that runs through these three remarkable initiatives are his courage, selflessness, ability to galvanise and inspire people to come together, to work with one another to make a difference. Euan was a special man, who will be deeply missed but whose legacy will only grow through all those he touched.”
