Disability advocate and social entrepreneur, Laura O’Reilly, has been named as a finalist selected for the 2019 NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year Award.
Jonathan O’Dea, Member for Davidson congratulated the Forestville local on her admirable accomplishments.
“Laura O’Reilly is a worthy candidate for the NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year and I am thrilled her achievements have been recognised,” Mr O’Dea said.
“I want to congratulate Laura O’Reilly for her amazing contribution to our community, especially in the disability sector.”
Inspired by her brother Shane, who had cerebral palsy, Ms O’Reilly co-founded Fighting Chance in 2011, a not-for-profit that supports more than 450 young adults with disability through its two social enterprises, Avenue and Jigsaw.
In 2014, Laura and her brother Jordan co-founded Hireup, an online platform which gives people with disability the power to find, hire and manage their support workers. With more than 50,000 registered users on the platform across Australia, Hireup is revolutionising the attendant care space.
Laura is a graduate of Cambridge University and UNSW, where she studied history and law respectively. In September 2014 Laura was awarded the Australian Woman’s Weekly Woman of the Future and in 2016 was a finalist for NSW Young Australian of the Year.
Minister for Women Tanya Davies today announced young entrepreneurs, humanitarian ambassadors and cancer researchers are among the 28 finalists who have been nominated for the various Awards ahead of the inaugural NSW Women’s Week.
“The Awards celebrate the extraordinary contributions of NSW women and this year’s finalists are just a handful of the thousands of women who make a difference in our communities. I urge everyone across NSW to show their support by reading their remarkable stories and voting online,” Mrs Davies said.
The winner of the Premier’s Award will be announced with other relevant award category winners at the 2019 NSW Women of the Year Awards held on 7 March at the International Convention Centre Sydney.
“I also again acknowledge Kirsten Quinn of Belrose, who is Local Woman of the Year for the Davidson electorate,” Mr O’Dea concluded.
