Mum on a mission: BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

A big thank you to everyone who entered our Real-Life Hero competition. Our worthy winner is Justine, who is a lifeline for hospital patients living in rural Queensland Justine Christerson, 48, Brisbane, Qld

- Lisa Brookman

Sitting in the busy emergency ward, I was ravenously hungry. But having just got off a Royal Flying Doctor Service flight with my son Korbyn, then four, I was more worried about his snakebite than my tummy.

Without a cent on me, I was too embarrassed to ask anyone in Rockhampton Hospital for money. And I was just relieved Korbyn was all right.

Back home in Biloela, a Central Queensland town about 145 kilometres from Rockhampton, I thought about all the people from rural towns who were rushed to hospital without anything they needed.

When we moved to Brisbane soon after, in November 2012, my friend Mary-Ann's two-year-old son Ryan was hospitalised with a brain tumour.

From Biloela, nearly 600 kilometres from Brissie, Mary-Ann was staying in accommodation near the hospital for families of kids in the cancer unit.

Quickly I realised so many of these families were from rural towns. Like Mary-Ann, they were stuck in accommodation far from home. Some didn't even have buses in their towns, so didn't know how to use public transport or couldn't afford it.

So I started cooking batches of food at home and dropping them off to the families.

Thank you so much!' they said, grateful.

'It's the least I can do,' I smiled.

If they needed clothes or toiletries, I gave them a lift to the shops or went for them.

I was so busy cooking and running errands, I enlisted two lovely volunteers to help.