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Community

8 January, 2021

i'ara fulfilled the the radio star

POPULAR Cairns radio personality, mum blogger, and former ‘House Rules’ reality TV star, Maddi Wright, has found a new calling – assisting local people with disability to live a better quality of life.


Maddi Wright with Nikki, a local mum living with Multiple Sclerosis.
Maddi Wright with Nikki, a local mum living with Multiple Sclerosis.

With more than 82,000 Facebook followers, Maddi is best known for 15 years as a breakfast announcer for radio stations in Brisbane, Townsville and finally Cairns where she settled five years ago with her husband Lloyd and two children.

However, what many people don’t know is that alongside working in radio, Maddi became passionate about helping people in her community by volunteering and working for organisations such as the Cerebral Palsy League, the Endeavour Foundation, and the Support Coordination Academy.

Last year she decided to hang up the radio mic and focus on her career in the disability sector. Maddi founded i’ara Support Coordination, an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) registered provider assisting people with disability in North Queensland with their NDIS plans.

“We assist people to get appropriate accessible housing, to find employment, to build independent living skills, to get through some really tough crisis periods in their lives, and we genuinely assist people to a point where they’re living a better and more supported life’’ Maddi said.

i’ara Support Coordination has ten Support Coordinators servicing Mackay all the way up to Cairns, and in its first year has already helped hundreds of clients to put supports in place through their NDIS plans.

“Recently, we were able to assist Nikki, a Cairns local living with Multiple Sclerosis, to get her child into Cairns Special School. This was a great outcome for the family, who had previously been unsuccessful in past applications to the school’’ said Maddi.

Nikki said i’ara’s support had been life-changing for her son.

“Maddie and her incredibly caring and understanding team are truly amazing. They were the support we needed not only for the school application but also to navigate the endless amounts of paperwork, options and wait lists for accessing therapy,” said Nikki.

Another success story was Taine, a young Cairns man living with Down Syndrome. 

“A big part of our team’s work is focused on assisting parents and carers to get respite and relief from their constant caring roles,” said Maddi.

“Our team worked closely with Taine and his mum, Mel, to put in daily supports and work towards employment goals. Mel has been a full-time carer since Taine was born and it’s the first time that she has actually had some respite.”

Maddi said there were many support services in the region, but i’ara Support Coordination had been an instant success due to their focus on customer service.

“We’ve hired a really dedicated, caring team and I’m so proud of them. They work really hard, they genuinely care about their clients and they are invested in doing as much as they can to help get the best results for them,” she said.

For more information visit www.iarasupport.com.au 

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