Galway teenage medical entrepreneur Edel Browne has landed the keys to a new 162 registered car as a Nissan Generation Next ambassador.
Nineteen-year-old Edel from Athenry secured her place as one of 11 Nissan Generation Next ambassadors after a month of public voting. A total of 81,000 votes were cast for 20 finalists, with the top seven automatically qualifying to join the ambassador programme.
Edel was one of four finalists chosen by Nissan to join the programme, having impressed them with her enterprise, ingenuity and campaign to secure 2,846 votes. The talented founder of Free Feet Medical has developed innovative technology to help reduce gait freezing for people with Parkinson’s disease. Her device has the potential to improve mobility and quality of life for up to 10 million people suffering from Parkinson’s disease globally.
Edel was given the choice of a new, taxed and insured car from Nissan’s award-winning fleet to drive for a year and selected a personalised Nissan Juke as the car best suited to helping her to drive her business to the next level of success.
“I want to thank everyone who voted for me. I am delighted to become a Nissan Generation Next ambassador and to drive away with my new Nissan Juke It is going to make such a difference to what I want to achieve. I’ll never look back with such a great car,” she says.
Edel, who is in her second year of a BSc in Biotechnology at NUI Galway, plans to use her new Nissan to travel to Parkinson’s Associations across Ireland to present her work and to conduct market research to improve Free Feet Medical’s product so that she can bring it to market.
More than 1,000 ambitious achievers applied to join the Nissan Generation Next ambassador programme which is now in in third year. The innovative programme was developed by Nissan to support Ireland’s new generation of leaders and champions to get ahead on their journey to success.
“Edel is an exceptional entrepreneur who shares Nissan’s commitment to excellence and innovation, says local Nissan dealer, Michael Butler, dealer principal at Windsor Galway Nissan. "We are delighted to welcome her to the Nissan Generation Next ambassador programme and to supply her with an award winning Nissan Juke so she can drive her business to the next level.”
