New Year's honour: The Napier woman who helped tear down the Kimberley Centre

Carol Charman receives a Queen's Service Medal for services to youth and people with intellectual disabilities. Photo / Warren Buckland

Carol Charman had every motivation to make the lives of Kiwis with intellectually disabilties better - she was essentially fighting and dedicating herself to her two daughters.

The Napier 72-year-old has today been named on the New Year's Honours list for her services to youth and those with disabilities - receiving the Queen's Service Medal.

The retired nuclear medicine technologist has been volunteering all her life - but began assisting IHC, an organisation providing support and care for people with intellectual disabilities, because of her daughters.

"I've got two intellectually disabled daughters - that's what got me into IDEA services," she said.

Daughters Vivienne and Theresa were at home with their mother until they were 6 and 4 and then went to Levin's Kimberley Centre, a mass community for the intellectually disabled.

Charman said she realised the controversial facility was a "horrible" place for her daughters, and got herself onto the IHC committee in Palmerston North in 1982.

There she played an active role in policy and service development on the national committee, until the Kimberley Centre was deinstitutionalised in 1986.

She then played a big part in the hugely complex challenge of helping the community, including her daughters, leave Kimberley and reintegrate into society successfully before the centre officially closed in 2006.

Charman moved to Hawke's Bay in 1990 and worked for IHC's Napier branch and was president of IDEA Services for three years.

She worked with the Ministry of Health between 2004 and 2011, going through audits at organisations supplying services and homes for the intellectually disabled.

She said if the audits didn't look right, she had the power to change it and make a difference to those in care.

"That was very rewarding," she said.

Charman has also been president of Napier West and Greenmeadows Rotary.

"As time went on and when I joined Rotary I started working with youth and organised a programme called Rypen," she said.

Rypen is Rotary youth programme that takes teenagers to Lake Tutira for a weekend, pushing them out of their comfort zones and helping them build their confidence.

"I've done that for over 23 years, organising and being involved in the programme," she said. "You can really see the change in them, it's truly amazing."

Charman's partner Ken Hunt said he is very proud and humbled by what she has achieved.

"Her whole life has been dedicated to her daughters, there's no doubt about it and that flowed onto the wider community," he said.