Yvonne Keane: 2013 Women of the West Award nominee. Picture: Natalie Roberts
Hills resident Yvonne Keane has been nominated for a 2013 Women of the West Award.
The chief executive of the Reach for the Rainbow Foundation and Hear the Children Early Intervention Centre has spent four years raising funds and community awareness for early intervention services for hearing impaired children.
Mrs Keane first approached the centre at the St Gabriel’s School for Hearing Impairment at Castle Hill when her son Asher was born with a hearing impairment.
The centre provides auditory-verbal therapy to help children develop clear and natural speech.
She then raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep it in operation when it faced closure in 2009.
Yvonne also launched non-profit foundation Reach for the Rainbow to support early intervention services for at-risk, delayed and disabled children.