We celebrate the winners of the AgriFutures Rural Women's Award in this special series of Graziher's Life on the Land podcast.

In this episode you'll meet Rebecca Keeley, the 2024 New South Wales winner. Rebecca is fiercely passionate about closing the gap for regional and remote children being able to access speech pathology. Studies show that Aussie kids are on average waiting 20 months for a speech pathology assessment - and a further 20 months before they receive intervention. For example, that means a two-year-old with delayed speech, is nearly six before they’re being seen face to face – the ripple effect of that delayed intervention seen throughout their formative years and beyond. The cost of these services is prohibitive to many regional and remote families who would also need to travel huge distances to access services.

This is not good enough for Rebecca Keeley. The speech pathologist has launched her startup, Yarn, which offers digital speech pathology programs to families while they wait to see a specialist in person.

The AgriFutures Rural Women's Award shines a spotlight on some of the most inspirational, courageous, innovative and hardworking women in the business, and celebrates all that rural Australia has to offer. This award recognises women having a positive impact in rural industries, businesses and communities and inspires the next generation of female leaders across all aspects of regional, rural and remote Australia.

This podcast was originally published on Graziher's Life on the Land podcast, hosted by Emily Herbert and Sammie O'Brien. Graziher is an Australian women's magazine, issued quarterly. Graziher is targeted towards female readers with a strong focus on rural affairs, regional issues and the social aspects relating to life for women who live and work in remote areas of Australia.