member has sung his daughter Mia’s praises for overcoming obstacles and thriving in her career, proudly saying she is doing ‘wonderfully’.
The proud dad said both he and wife Lisa are overjoyed to see their daughter, who recently turned 22, flourishing in university, where she is finishing up her fourth year studying enterprise computing.
She’ll no doubt continue to do great things as she has reportedly been offered a job with a prestigious US company.
Mia, who has autism, has achieved great things, according to her dad, despite any challenges along the way.
‘She’s doing wonderful – we’re very, very proud of her. Mia’s very determined,’ he told ahead of Autism Acceptance Week.
‘She puts a lot of pressure on herself, but she achieves a great amount, and that was all down to appropriate intervention at the right stage of her life, which we had to fight hand over tooth for, but we got there.’
He spoke of the early days before his daughter’s diagnosis, and said the journey was a process for the family, explaining it started small, with Mia doing things that were ‘alien to us’.
Though neither he nor Lisa, who are also parents to son Jay, were informed about autism all those years ago the way they are now – the general awareness simply wasn’t there at the time.
Following his daughter’s diagnosis, the Irish star is actively involved in fundraising for various autism charities to of the neurodevelopmental difference.
‘She was doing all kinds of things that were alien to us, funny little traits, and we thought there was something not quite right’, he explained.
‘Somebody suggested autism, but we had no idea what autism was at the time – we had no education on it and we didn’t understand it,’ he continued, adding that he was grateful to have his beautiful daughter.
‘I’ve a great deal to be grateful for. I’ve got a beautiful daughter that’s very, very happy – as a human being she’s one of the most beautiful people ever,’ he said.
