About Us
Our Founders
We are Megan Strauchman and Mark Morningstar, the co-founders of Ireland’s Dream. In 2012, Megan gave birth to our beautiful baby girl, Ireland. However, during birth, an umbilical cord prolapse resulted in Ireland having cerebral palsy. She spent the first 7 weeks of her life in the hospital, and we waited anxiously to take her home to her older brothers.
This was our first real world experience with cerebral palsy. Many people we talk to today don’t even know what cerebral palsy is. Cerebral palsy is a variable type of brain injury that affects people in many different ways. Some children are only slightly affected, while others are permanently disabled, wheelchair-bound, and need constant attendant care. There are no treatments out there that are covered by insurance to treat or reverse cerebral palsy. However, there are many, many therapies available worldwide that improve cerebral palsy, and can have significant impacts on quality of life. Unfortunately, most of these therapies are difficult to obtain due to lack of insurance coverage and travel costs.
We were lucky enough to discover and utilize many of these therapies for Ireland, and have witnessed dramatic improvements since using these therapies. We truly believe that no child with cerebral palsy should have his or her treatment options limited by his or her parent’s financial status. Out of this belief, Ireland’s Dream was born.