Originally from Mullingar, Gráinne McGeown had always had a head for business. However, when she was given the opportunity to slow down and work with autistic children, she jumped at the chance.

As a schoolchild, Gráinne always found the idea of going to the business sector very exciting and progressed through the years towards her goal of owning her own business. But when she finally established her company, she realised that she still wasn't fulfilled and decided that the new Human Resources phenomenon taking off in Ireland could be just the job for her. With the help of her business background, she managed to secure a place in a Tesco HR training course, responding to the demands of the job instantly.

"I was delighted to get into the Tesco training course because it was quite comprehensive and HR was quite new to Ireland at the time. I am definitely a people person, so I really loved it and found it to be very varied and exciting."

Gráinne soon found work as a HR Manager with an international company but quickly discovered that her free time was becoming more and more scarce. The high-powered nature of her job meant that she was working 50 to 60 hour weeks and spending a lot of her time on the road. This meant spending less and less time with her daughter Laura, and soon Gráinne made up her mind that it was time to take a step back.

After leaving her job, she decided that Galway was be a great place to raise her daughter and moved to the West coast in 2005. She began working as a store manager at A-Wear clothing in Galway City but found that she missed the challenges associated with her old role, and kept her eye open for new opportunities. After a couple of months, she heard of a new position opening with the ábalta school for autistic children and after meeting with some of the parents, she decided to go for the job.

"I met with the parents of some of the children who attended the school and they were absolutely amazing. My heart just took over and I knew I had to do something to help them. My main role initially was in HR and the general management of the school but every year we were noticing the accounts were coming up short so then the focus shifted to fundraising in order to keep the school open."

Gráinne is about to face her biggest challenge yet. She is organising a huge fundraising ball, which aims to raise €200,000 for Abalta. The event has already received great backing from hotelier John Glynn and many well-known personalities, including Boyzone star Keith Duffy and ‘You're a Star' judge Michelle Heaton. The funds raised from the ball will be essential to keep the school running over the next year or two, as the government recently refused to grant funding to parents of autistic children for Applied Behavioural Analysis treatment.

"There are ongoing talks between the IAA and the government regarding funding at the moment, so we are very positive about that. ABA is absolutely essential to some of these children and the fact that there are kids out there who can't receive the treatment because of waiting lists and funding shortages is heartbreaking. We would be absolutely thrilled if some kind of agreement was reached, but in the meantime, we are trying to do everything we can to keep this service open to as many children as possible."

Gráinne describes herself as an outdoor person and says she enjoys nothing more than walking in the Connemara Mountains with her daughter. She also likes to cycle and recently took up horseriding but jokes that she "might be too old for it!"

For more information on the Keith Duffy Abalta Ball, contact Abalta on 091-589646.

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