Deborah is the Founder of the Frog Decline Reversal Project Inc., and Curator of the Cairns Frog Hospital, which she has been operating from her own home since August 1998. Because the group is not sufficiently supported, operational costs are regularly paid by Deborah from her Disability Support Pension, which is her only source of income.

Perhaps if Deborah was exploring the arrival of new human diseases, everybody would sit up and take notice. Wildlife diseases, especially in a small animal that is seldom even noticed, attracts less or no attention. Part of the challenge of Deborah’s work is to convey the importance of these animals to a healthy planet, and to help people understand why we should be making the effort to save them. While there is some support for her work, Deborah is also regularly chastises both privately and through the media, by those who that charity to humans is more important, that cold blooded animals are not worthy of our concern, or that raising money to help frogs is some kind of innovative gimmick to extract money from the public. Showing people why they need to consider smaller life forms is a challenge that adds a discouraging burden to all the other aspects involved with running a community group in a climate of excessive regulation, while at the same time engaged in ground breaking work.

On top of these considerations, Deborah is going about her voluntary work while living with a disability. She has been struggling with the onset of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome since 1996, and has cardiovascular problems, osteoporosis and a thyroid disorder. Because her condition has been slowly worsening with time, on might have expected Deborah to withdraw from the pursuit of amphibian diseases, or for that matter, any other form of volunteer activity. Instead, her commitment to the amphibians of our world continues unabated, producing results that would be considered stagging if achieved by a person with good health.

Deborah says, ‘"I would like to thank the Turtle Award judges for placing the seemingly lowly amphibian in the company of others who work hard to assist the human condition.  The work of my frog conservation group is difficult and discouraging because of new diseases that are killing these delicate and important animals, but even more so because too much of society believes these small animals are "low priority".  Our existence has always been 'hand to mouth' and our future is at risk because of dwindling support.  But I appreciate the attention of the Altruism Foundation who reminds us that we are doing the right thing."