A young family living in rural Queensland, leading a fundraising campaign for an organisation improving their son's hearing and speech, has raised more than $10,000 from their tiny community of Wowan.
Two-year-old Arthur Olsson was born with bilateral, mild to moderate sensory neural hearing loss.
Arthur's mother Lysandra said the genetic condition meant he can hear within close range, but wears hearing aids most of the time.
"If they're playing up he'll say 'mum, not working', so they must make a bit of a difference for him," Mrs Olsson said.
She said when he was born, doctors urged her to seek early intervention speech therapy.
But with two other children and living 630 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, and 80 kilometres from the closest major regional city of Rockhampton, the tyranny of distance became a challenge.
That is when the charity Hear and Say stepped in.
The charity, which started in Brisbane in 1992, is a world-leading paediatric auditory-verbal centre which delivers services to rural and remote families.
Arthur now does fortnightly listening and spoken language therapy lessons with practitioners over the internet, from his home.
Mrs Olsson said she has seen a big improvement in his speech.
"He's come a very long way since we enrolled him," she said.
The family is paying the favour forward, leading a fundraising campaign in their community of just over 200 people.
So far, the farming community has raised more than $10,000 with local cattle producers, electrical and mechanical businesses, and pubs donating to the cause.
"I just would love to be able to give back, to have other families be able to have their kids access the early intervention programs that they run," Mrs Olsson said.
