Anne Holland is an entrepreneur, educator, presenter, speaker and author. Anne is a registered nurse with extensive experience in post anaesthetic critical care, a first aid trainer, nurse immuniser and is a former program practitioner for remediation of cerebellar development delay (CDD). She brings her combination of specialised professional and personal experience to her commitment for change with passion and determination.
Four of Anne’s five children exhibited varying degrees of attention deficit, poor concentration, disorganisation, speech and behavioural difficulties. One son struggled with dyslexia and delayed speech development which resulted in learning delays, severe bullying and victimisation. Another son also presented with delayed speech development and hyperactivity but after speech therapy very early in childhood, he did not progress to dyslexia. All four children suffered during childhood and early adulthood with recurrent ear infections and tonsillitis and, despite delays caused by medical resistance, they eventually had their tonsils removed which resulted in noticeable improvements in their health and learning capacity.
Psychometric assessments found that all were average or above average intellectually however there were delays, such as resolution of primitive reflexes, and their abilities were not matched by their capabilities to learn & progress at the same pace as their peers. There was also an unrecognised familial history of Asperger’s Syndrome and autism spectrum presentation.
To have one child affected with these difficulties was a challenge but to have four was almost insurmountable stress. Anne’s experience has equipped her with a wealth of knowledge and practical solutions.
During their childhood and school years, Anne engaged multi-modal therapies to assist her children to reach their individual potential and to ensure they had the same educational opportunities. These included medical management, speech therapy; music therapy; visual and auditory stimulation programs; gross and fine motor-sensory programs including occupational therapy; numerous sporting and physical activities to assist with developing neural motor and sensory pathways. She also ran an after-hours second ‘school’ at home to teach the children how to develop organisational skills so that they could manage educational demands such as project work and home work. Individual Support Group assistance was also required for a couple of the children to monitor their progress and behaviour at school.
In 2005, Anne commenced working in a remedial program for cerebellar developmental delay (CDD) which focused on visual, vestibular and somatosensory exercises to stimulate neuroplasticity and maturation of cerebellum function to enhance automaticity. In the two years that she worked in this role, she witnessed remarkable improvements in the abilities of individuals (children, adolescents & adults) to concentrate, communicate, function and achieve.
All of Anne’s children completed Year 12, gained university degrees and Master degrees or post graduate qualifications and all have demanding and rewarding professional careers. The son who struggled with dyslexia, changed schools at VCE and from that time onwards had access to a scribe to assist him with examinations. The scribe service was also available at university and during his studies to achieve a Master Business Administration degree. So many children with specific learning difficulties in the past either dropped out of school or did not reach their full potential due to lack of recognition of their difficulty and lack of assistance programs.
In another area of expertise, Anne is also an experienced and accomplished speaker, thought leader and passionate advocate of public education to raise community awareness of the lifesaving role of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) by removing fear and empowering laypersons to take immediate action to potentially save a life.
She founded her business Defib First in 2012 and not-for-profit Urban Lifesavers in 2015. Her passion for educating ordinary people to become urban lifesavers stems from the sudden cardiac arrest death of her husband, Paul in 2008.
Anne completed the Key Person of Influence entrepreneurs’ development program and was the winner of the KPI 2014 ‘Pitch Fest’ in Melbourne with a first-ever perfect score from all four judges.
This achievement has led Anne to:
- write her book ‘Back in a Heart Beat’ which busts the myths associated with cardiac arrest and bystanders using defibrillators (published in 2015). Ranked #1 for First Aid & Cardiology on Amazon.com.au in February 2016.
- organise the 2015 inaugural event ‘Shock around the Clock’ Gala Dinner in Shocktober (sudden cardiac arrest awareness month) to raise awareness about the importance of bystanders providing early defibrillation during a cardiac arrest
- establish and fund not-for-profit Urban Lifesavers (2015) to raise awareness about the importance of bystanders applying defibrillators to prevent avoidable deaths and to deliver education programs to empower ordinary people, with or without first aid training, to be informed and take responsibility to be an urban lifesaver.
- organise the ‘Back in a Heart Beat’ sudden cardiac arrest awareness event for defibrillation training at Federation Square in October 2016.
- establish a Heart Safe Workplace registry for organisations that recognised the importance of early defibrillation and equip their workplaces and staff with AEDs and the confidence to use them.
- produce a ‘Back in Heart Beat’ film to educate ordinary people on how to respond to a sudden cardiac arrest with a defibrillator
Anne was nominated for the 2016 Telstra Business Women’s Awards and was a finalist in 2016 The Weekly Review Local Heroes Awards.
In 2017, on behalf of Urban Lifesavers, Anne released an online petition – Defibrillator legislation is essential for cardiac arrest survival which calls upon State & Territory governments in Australia to bring OHS/WHS laws into line with national first aid training regulations.
Anne is inspired by a quote from Mother Teresa “I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone across the waters and create many ripples”.
