Champions for Safety event takes place at UCD

Presenting to the students was Ciaran Roche from FBD Insurance Martina Gormley from the Health and Safety Authority and Ronan Kilgallon from ESB. 

The Champions for Safety initiative encourages farming students to become champions for safety and it encourages them not to take risks. The initiative has been running for over a decade and due to the value of these seminars many colleges have made this a compulsory part of the curriculum for their students before they embark on work experience on farms.

Ciaran Roche and FBD have strong links with UCD Health and Safety with FBD sponsoring the annual FBD Health and Safety Awards at the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science Awards Ceremony. Based on their results in the Health & Safety module and an interview process, three students are selected annually as FBD Health & Safety Ambassadors. These students are awarded a bursary at the Awards Ceremony.

Also there to talk to the students was UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School alum and two time paralympian Kerrie Leonard.
Kerrie told a truly inspiring “survivors story” based on a life changing farm accident involving a tractor in 1997 when she was just 6 years old.

A farm safety advocate, Kerrie spoke honestly and openly about mental health and struggling to cope at times following her injury. She spoke about the importance of sport and being part of a team and a club which was what drove her on to be a paralympian at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.