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Hi, I'm Justine Christerson. I'm founder of Breaking Down the Barriers
for rural patients in city hospitals
for Brisbane.
The reason I started the program is I did recognize that there was a gap for these
families
So really we're just a volunteer organization so we work on a direct
gifting service. Our followers on Facebook will read stories about families
and then from me posting requests like
could we have a fruit and veg hamper delivered to one of our families
our followers will contact us and and then they will order and pay for the fruit
and veg hamper to be delivered directly to the family. So we try and
make sure our help is just practical. It's about convenience and making life simple.
So we're here today to pick up Justine
and Molly.
Young Molly is a young girl that was involved in a car accident a few weeks ago out at
Maryborough
and they're coming in for doctor's appointments and I've offered to
pick them up today. We
find Brisbane very daunting, we don't have family friends in Brisbane, we feel very
small in such a big place, and you're separated from your husband.
I've got two other children's so just to have that fracture in the family
I think also puts a lot of pressure as well so just to know there's someone
that can help you get from place to place
let you know I you need to go, give you support emotionally
all sorts of things. So it's just fantastic it's just invaluable it really is.
Oh thank you. Hope you can read it.
Ohh, thank you for the car ride and picking us up.
It's quite common for rural folk to not ask for handouts
or receive handouts or be charity as such and so that's also something that
I want to make sure is we break down those barriers and let people know it's okay
to ask
but also I try and give the patient and family the opportunity to obtain what they
need without actually having to ask by just identifying
those needs for them. So we try and
fill in the gaps just on the social side of things whether it be
with frozen meals some snacks to get them through the day
or even just a grocery card to help them out so that they can go shopping.
I enjoy doing it because I know that I'm making something that can be
very traumatic for someone a little bit easier and knowing that during
time of tragedy and trauma these people can manage a smile just from me
bringing
something as simple as a tooth brush. So the program started in January and from
that
word of mouth has spread and we've looked after
almost sixty patients just this year and their families.
Yeah, it's which really well because people enjoy
knowing that they're directly helping someone and the other thing is also is
the emotional connection
the family that receives it feels wonderful for knowing that strangers
would go out of their way
to do something so special for them.