One week after being announced Narrabri Shire’s Citizen of the Year, local woman Kelly Foran has now been awarded the highest honour for women in the Barwon Electorate.
Kelly was recently named the 2015 Local Woman of the Year in Barwon for ongoing work with her foundation, Friendly Faces Helping Hands (FFHH), which provides free assistance for people trying to access appropriate health care in challenging situations.
She was inspired to start FFHH in 2010 after her own experiences in health care.
Ten years ago Kelly developed a brain tumour while pregnant, then suffered a stroke and an infection on the brain as a result of the surgery.
Her son, born by emergency caesarean, also developed serious health complications, which meant they both required extensive medical treatment in this city.
While mother and son have both since recovered, the journey was extremely difficult causing Kelly to set off on a mission to help other families in a similar position.
“We were really lucky that we have a beautiful family that helped and supported us, but lots of people don’t have that so I set up a foundation that helps people get to hospitals and health facilities all over Australia,“ Kelly explained.
“We help and support people with small things like making sure they know about Angel Flight.
“I spend hours researching things for people because they don’t have the time to do it themselves.
“There are so many support services, I’m not the hero, I’m just connecting people with those services and I’m lucky to be able to do that.”
Friendly Faces Helping Hands has been an overwhelming success, already helping over 45,000 people across Australia and saving countless lives.
In one instance, Kelly was able to facilitate the transportation of a
terminally ill young man to an American hospital, the only location offering the treatment he required.
"I got a phone call from a lady in QLD and she said our next door neighbour’s 19 year old has cancer and he’s been told to go home and die because there is nothing else the doctors can do, can you help us?"
"The mother had absolutely lost the plot which is fair, her son had brain cancer, doctors operated 4 times and then told them there is nothing else they could do.
"I researched his condition and found out that there is a treatment in America which has a 96% success rate, and I knew that in previous cases Australians had been sent over by the Federal government because it works and it wasn’t in Australia, so they paid.
“So I got on the phone to Mark Coulton and asked him what he could do, and he took it to parliament and got it through that they would pay $200,000 for the surgery and to send him to America, he’s over there now and he’s in treatment.
“He’s still alive and they’d given him four weeks to live and that was back in December"
While Kelly is going from strength to strength personally and now in the running for NSW Woman of the Year, the foundation is also gaining momentum with support flowing in. Most recently, a Tasmanian woman donated the use of her holiday house to families who approach FFHH in need of respite.
Victorian horse breeders Mark and Shelley Russ also donated 10% of the sale value of two horses they had up for auction in the Landmark Classic sale held in Tamworth last Friday.
The horses sold for a total of $67,000 dollars, meaning the Ruff’s donated almost $7,000 to FFHH.
Kelly’s unique venture has gained national recognition, and she is often asked to share her experience at national forums or events.
“For the first three years I was absolutely run off my feet trying to make sure people knew about us and it’s now getting to the point where people are actually coming to us and asking us to be a part of their organisation or event,” Kelly said.
“After 4 years I feel we can ask people for donations which we’ve never done before, so we’re looking at setting up a regular donation program at around $2 per week.”
Kelly has recently been approached by Charles Sturt University to form a partnership wherein she provides guest lectures in social science courses.
CSU has suggested student practical placements with FFHH which would count towards the completion of degrees.
This year Kelly aims to launch a mobile phone application to help people access FFHH services, but she wants to remain accessible to people outside the digital realm.
“The website is the main ‘go to’ but for a lot of people, who don’t have internet service or a computer, we push our hotline and phone support, and we still fax a lot of information,” she said.
“Telstra gave us phones that we hand out to people for free, and then we can text them information, but then still some people can’t text.”
Ultimately, Kelly hopes for a more holistic health system, where services like Friendly Faces Helping Hands are endemic rather than externally run foundations.
“I want all the different services to talk to each other, to not be worried about being private, government or not-for-profit, everyone has a role to play and we need to start working together.”
Kelly is extremely proud that her hard work is being recognised.
Barwon MP Kevin Humphries said Kelly was a clear choice for the Woman of the Year.
“Through the Friendly Faces
website, Kelly provides information and support to rural people who suddenly find themselves trying to navigate the complex city hospital and health systems,” he said.
“It is often the thankless work of women like Kelly that makes our community great places to live and defines who we are as Australians,” he said. Kelly will attend the 2015 NSW Women of the Year award ceremony at Parliament House in March.