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Family of Eithne Walls' safety hopes for Air France crash report Eithne Walls fund honours doctor and Riverdance star
(about 1 hour later)
By Claire Savage BBC News The family of a talented young doctor and Riverdance star killed in an air crash three years ago have set up a fund in her memory.
The sister of a County Down doctor killed in a plane crash has said she hopes the final report into the disaster will help improve air safety. Eithne Walls died alongside two of her closest friends when an Air France jet from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic on 1 June 2009.
Doctor Eithne Walls, from Ballygowan, was among 220 people who died when an Air France jet from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic on 1 June 2009. Two hundred and twenty people lost their lives.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the disaster, Kathryn Walls said Eithne, 28, was "without a doubt one of the most extraordinary people you could have ever met". Eithne, from Ballygowan, was just 28 years old and was pursuing a career as an eye doctor.
Kathryn said it was hard to know what the report would say. Now, those who knew the talented doctor want to ensure that her memory lives on.
"All I really hope is that the report contains recommendations that will ultimately result in air travel being safer." They have raised money which will be used to boost research into eye diseases and to inspire young doctors like her to contribute to the international debate on eye health.
Eithne, whose body was never recovered, died alongside her two friends and fellow doctors, Aisling Butler and Jane Deasy. Speaking on the third anniversary of her death, her sister, Kathryn Walls, said Eithne's spirit was being kept very much alive.
The three women had graduated in medicine from Trinity College Dublin in 2007 and were returning from holiday. "She had done so much with her life. She spent a year in New York working on Broadway with Riverdance and she travelled with them to China and Qatar.
Her family have now set up a fund in her memory to raise money for research at Dublin's Eye and Ear hospital where she worked. "While she was studying she was in Australia and she went to Malawi where she worked on eye disease in young children and adults."
Forty of Eithnes's friends and family are also running the mini marathon in Dublin on Monday in her honour. It was a visit to the optician when she was just eight years old that fuelled her interest in eyesight and her ambition to be an ophthalmologist.
Speaking on the eve of the third annivesary of her death, Kathryn described her sister as "warm, generous, kind". "She was fascinated by the equipment. It was at that point that she declared she wanted to help people with their eyesight and she never lost sight of that goal. Sight is one of our most important senses, she really valued that highly," said Kathryn Walls.
"She was also extremely talented and very academically gifted," she said. "She had a tremendous impact at the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital. The doctors said very openly she was one of most talented junior doctors they had ever come across."
"She was training to be an opthamologist, and I think she was going to excel and be a truly gifted doctor." The crash robbed the family of a much-loved daughter and sister, but out of such suffering, the Walls set out to create something positive.
'Devastating' Eithne's fund supports research at the eye and ear hospital.
Eithne was a talented Irish dancer who spent a year with Riverdance on Broadway, New York. Eithne's friends at Riverdance offered to run the Dublin mini-marathon in Eithne's name and are preparing to do this for a third time.
Kathryn said it had been a difficult time for her family. In all, 40 of Eithne's friends and family will take to the streets in Dublin on Monday in her honour. So far, they have raised 15,000 euros for Eithne's fund.
"The accident had a devastating effect on my family, on Eithne's friends and her colleagues," she said. A medal in the young doctor's name carries a bursary offering young doctors the chance to present their research at international conferences.
"What keeps us going is the support we get from all of those people, the prayers of all of our friends and families and the memories of Eithne we will always have. And young Irish dancers, following a path once trodden by Eithne, can now compete for a trophy in her name.
"I think we can only remember her as possibly one of the most exceptional and inspirational people we will ever meet." Kathryn Walls said she hoped the final report into the air disaster would help improve air safety.
"Our thoughts are with the families of all the passengers and the crew. It is three years but it could be yesterday," she said.