Mum's journey to Masters degree inspired by son's death

Karen Gallen graduated with a Masters in Letterkenny last week after a journey prompted by the tragic death of her son.

Jimmy Guichard, a former St Eunan’s player, was just 20 when he died after taking a legal high in England in October, 2013.

His heartbroken mother, who now lives with her husband, Paul, in Rathmullan, had to go to Gravesend to switch off he live support machine.

“He was so fit and healthy, but was wiped out because of a bag of stuff that cost £2.50,” Karen told Donegal Live.

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“He took some synthetic cannabis and his body reacted badly. He had a massive heart attack and, after reviving from that, his brain stem was just crushed.

“After I lost Jimmy, I went into Youthreach to give some talks. I wanted people to be aware of the dangers that were there and the same with parents. I couldn’t really keep doing that without the education to back it up.”

Karen, who has lived in Donegal since 2005, led a campaign to have shops banned from selling legal highs before starting an inspirational educational journey. Last week, she was among the first graduates from Atlantic Technological University, Donegal.

Her journey back into education began in 2015 when she undertook the Access Studies course at LyIT in 2015.

From there, she completed a four-year BSc in Health and Social Care - having to deal with the Covid-19 lockdown towards the end of the course - before beginning her Masters.

She said: “We graduated remotely in 2020 from the BSc course and I immediately filled in the form for the Masters. If I had come out of education at that stage, I don’t think that I would have gone back into it again.

“It has been a long journey, but it has been really worthwhile. My family have backed me all the way and this isn’t something you could do as an adult without that level of support at home. The college was unbelievably supportive of us all too. That support made it easier.”

The support of Anne-Marie Gallagher and Margaret Toner at the Community Development Project (CDP) in Letterkenny, where she has worked since March of this year, has also been invaluable.

She said: “They were the first people to support me when I lost Jimmy so I sort of feel now that I have gone back full circle.”

As part of her studies, Karen compared how the Covid-19 pandemic affected addiction services in the North West and the East of Ireland.

“I looked at service provision and how it ran - or didn’t - during lockdown and looked at what we are facing now,” she explained. “I also looked at how clients have been impacted. Donegal and the North West region sort of shutdown during that first lockdown.

“In the east, their services became more of a doorstep service and they were still interacting with the clients.”

Karen is being encouraged to continue her research at PhD level, something that is dependent on available funding.

“Addiction is in every community and it’s so important that people are aware of it,” she said. “No-one is immune to it because everyone knows someone affected. I do think, with my experience and my education now, I can help others.”