Tim Conolan AM

Honours and awards

2014 Australian of the Year Local Hero

Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to community health, particularly to ill children and their families.

About

Tim Conolan AM is the founder and CEO of TLC for Kids, a charity to support children and their families in hospitals throughout Australia. He founded the organisation in 1998 and it has since provided free practical and emotional support more than 11 million times to families in need who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks.

After entering the world of entrepreneurship at age 20, Tim was asked to attend a cancer support group camp as a motivational speaker. There he met some seriously ill children who were to change the course of his career. Wanting to make a difference, Tim established TLC for Kids with his long-term partner, Ana.

Tim was instrumental in developing TLC for Kids’ national Distraction Box program, which is used more than a million times a year to benefit children in 400 hospitals across Australia. Distraction Boxes include therapeutic toys and items used by healthcare professionals to guide children through frightening and painful procedures. Their other services include RAPID TLC, the Digital Distraction app, and the TLC Ambulance, giving children in palliative care a chance to visit a treasured destination with their family to create a last memory.