Cathal Cannon, a Transition Year student in St. Columba’s College in Stranorlar and the brains behind the Sports Injury Response App, has reached the final of the 2022 Student Enterprise Programme.
Cathal developed the Sports Injury Response App as part of the Student Enterprise Programme organised by the Local Enterprise Offices.
The final will take place on Wednesday, 18th May in the Helix in Dublin.
(Cathal is pictured above showing Colm Markey MEP the Sports Injury Response application.)
Discussing his enterprise, Cathal said: “The inspiration for the app came from an injury I sustained while playing football a few years ago.
“The Sports Injury Response App was built to give guidance to coaches and managers on the side lines on how they can provide the appropriate care to an injured player while waiting on professional medical assistance to be provided.
“I am delighted to have reached the final of the competition and to see how far I can go with the Sports Injury Response App.”
All the information within the application has been verified by two GPs, one of whom specialises in Sports Medicine, and Donegal sports stars such as Jason Quigley, Ryan McHugh and Chloe Magee have shown their support for platform. Cathal Cannon has been selling his app directly to sports clubs in the Northwest who have already started providing it to the team coaches.
Cathal Cannon, the St. Columba’s Transition Year student who has made it to the final of the Student Enterprise Programme pictured with his teacher Ms. Catherine Cooke Harkin, Grace Korbel and Principal of St. Columba’s Tom Rowan.
And the importance of the app came to the fore last Wednesday evening.
Cathal explained: “I was playing for Ballybofey United Youths away to Gweedore United. One of my teammates sustained a nasty facial injury and myself and my coach used the app to care for the injury before medical assistance arrived. It was a proud moment seeing something I created really helping my own teammate and to see the app being used as it was intended.”
Clubs in the Northwest such as Downings GAA and Sion Swift Ladies are already using the app.
The Student Enterprise Programme is the biggest enterprise competition for students in Ireland with over 23,000 students taking part each year.
The programme helps students to grasp real life skills associated with running an enterprise including working as part of a team, managing production and finances, organising a sales and marketing campaign and liaising directly with customers, judges and the media.
Grace Korbel, Business Advisor with Local Enterprise Office Donegal said: “Over the 15 years of the Local Enterprise Offices running this competition, we have seen some remarkable success stories with high levels of innovation, ingenuity and clever sales pitches and Cathal Cannon is the most recent example of this.
“We are delighted Cathal has secured a place in the top five student enterprises and is representing Donegal at a national level. We wish him the best of luck in the final stage of the competition.”
Cathal will be among five other finalists from around Ireland and will be making his pitch to compete for the top prize in the Helix in Dublin on Wednesday, 18th May.
To find out more about the app, check out Sports Injury Response on Facebook and @sportsinjuryresponse on Instagram.
