Singleton's The Greyhound Girl - Dimity Maher

To many in and out of the sport, Dimity is known as The Greyhound Girl, who takes every available opportunity to promote the sport through positive posts on her social media platforms and a podcast. It's those platforms which have played a significant role during very tough times in her past.

"I'm sure it might sound a bit dramatic to people but it's 100% true," Dimity says. "It has saved my life.

"I got really, really crook and I dropped a ton of weight very quickly. I honestly thought I had cancer because it was so bad. I had a lot of tests and they really couldn't pinpoint it until I had a colonoscopy and then they said you have Crohn's Disease really bad."

Crohn's is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease which cannot be cured and can sometimes cause life-threatening complications.

"It's been a tough 11 years dealing with it, but what's been the good thing is having my page and having greyhound racing, because honestly, without it, there's no way I would be alive because I would have given up so many times.

"But being able to motivate myself, by saying right I have to feel good this week because I want to get to the track because so and so asked me to catch a dog."

The Greyhound Girl page has an average monthly reach of 1.5 million, and her posts not only feature those success stories in the sport but highlights the love for the greyhound and combats much of the negativity put out there by anti-racing activists.

Dimity promotes the entire industry, but often puts a focus on the many young women who have entered the sport in recent times, and who, along with her, we celebrate today on International Women's Day.

The Page she says was expected to last six months.

"I wanted to use it as something positive for me to focus on, and I just wanted to help promote the industry as much as I could. I thought if I can try and put some stuff out there and change people's perceptions, then that's great.

"I honestly thought it would last six months or so, and I would get sick of it. But it's getting bigger. It's been fantastic. The people I've met has been the biggest thing I've gained from it. So many friends and so many great opportunities from it.

"I try and aim for a couple of posts every day. Sometimes that doesn't always happen but the numbers I get on an average month, my reach will be around 1.5 million people.

"I look at it and go holy heck, there's that many people who are looking at greyhound racing that potentially want to be involved. That's what I get a real kick out of."

Growing up, Dimity lived "a stone throw" from the Singleton greyhound track. Each Sunday her father Peter would take Dimity, stop at McDonalds, grab some food, and then head to the trials.

Young Dimity would sit with a notepad and pen and write down the colours of the dogs she thought trialled well.

"I'm an only child, my dad, grandfather and all my uncles on dad's side were all breeders and trainers, so dad encouraged me to get involved. Mum not so much. She thought it wasn't very girly for me to get involved in, but right now it's incredible how many women there are in the industry and how many are very successful.

"I feel like my love just grows every day. I just want to be involved as much as I can. I never really thought I'd get into the media side. My goal was always to be a track manager. I wanted to run a track, but once Singleton closed that dream sort of went out the door.

"I've sort of dabbled into a few things, I've trained a couple with dad. We've bred some, owned some and then started The Greyhound Girl thing and that's just exploded to beyond what I could have ever dreamed of."

One of her highlights was being asked to catch Miss Ezmae in the inaugural 715 race at Ladbrokes Gardens. Despite a week of being sick she made sure she was there and as a reward, the Jack and Maree Smith-trained bitch won the race.

Another highlight came at The Gardens on November 22 last year when Ritza Margo, trained by her partner Shaun Flaherty, and handled that day by Dimity, was victorious.

"Handling a winner is something I never ever thought I would do just because I've got very brittle bones and muscles and wrist issues. I thought it's not for me. I'll stick to catching but my lovely boyfriend Shaun said you can do it, and I said to the starter Kira (Burnett) please help me I don't want to embarrass myself. Everyone at The Gardens was fantastic. They knew how big of a deal it was to me, and the fact that she come out and won in the best of the day time ....

"If I never handle another dog in my life, I'm quite happy with that."