“I grew up in Lismore and when I left school I did a variety of jobs in Sydney. I moved back here in 1994 and worked in banking until 2001. I did a Cert 3 in Aged Care and worked at Caroona in Goonellabah for a few years. During that time I decided that at the age of 40 I would like to go to Uni as a mature age student and become a Registered Nurse. I worked in the hospital system for a while before working in RSL Lifecare here in Lismore until recently when the flood came. We had to evacuate all our residents to different facilities.
During that time I saw a charity called ‘Share the Dignity’ and I had gathered all these handbags for their “It’s in the bag’ campaign in 2019. I was able to get 30 handbags together with all my workmates who brought in donated items. I dropped them off at Bunnings and thought, I can do this. I started as a Volunteer. We’re called Sheroes. It’s all to do with providing sanitary items to women and girls going through domestic violence, homelessness and hard times. With ‘It’s in the Bag’ we drop off all the donations to different charities in the area from Tweed Heads down to Grafton and out to Kyogle and Casino. These charities distribute the bags to all their clients.
It gets me really teary but sometimes what’s in that bag might be the only possessions that they have. The bags contain pads, tampons, hair care, toothbrush and paste, soap or bodywash and deodorant. Depending if it’s an adult, teen or mum and bub bag, we put in extras. If it’s a mum and bub bag we add nappies, nursing pads, nipple care and all that sort of stuff.
We have a drive in March and August where we put the pink boxes outside of Woolworths but we had the flood. After that we could only put one box outside the Goonellabah Woolies. I got a call from one of our volunteers at the SCU Hub and they had a heap of extra sanitary items they gave to us. We still had extra stock so I contacted the Wyrallah Hub and delivered a heap there. I noticed all the sanitary items were in a mess at that hub so offered to tidy them up and since then I’m known as The Pad Lady (laughs).
I lost everything under my house in the flood so consequently I had about $2,500 worth of donations, including nappies, incontinence pads and sanitary items which were all destroyed. I had brand new handbags and teen backpacks that I had bought on sale after Christmas. That was so devastating.
I really love the charity and we have some great volunteers in this area but we are always looking for more people. If anyone wants to sign up as a volunteer you can do so through the website (link below). We have a big database of people we help. Any charities can also go the website and add themselves to receive donations. We have another drive coming up in August and the boxes will be back outside Woolies so pads, menstrual cups, period underwear, etc, all donations are very much appreciated.
One of the charities we work with is ‘Rekindling the Spirit’ and she has allowed me to see some of the photos of clients receiving their bag. The smiles on their faces makes me cry because as I said, sometimes that’s the only thing they have when they leave their house or have to flee.
I was contacted and asked to be the Charity Queen in the area so I kind of co-ordinate all the volunteers and make sure all runs smoothly. Rochelle Courtenay started this in Brisbane because she had been in that same position once. She has also put the vending machines in schools which contain pads and tampons. We had one at Richmond River High which was lost in the flood. They are worth about $10k so that was a big loss. We have one at Lismore Library which was on the second floor luckily. We have one at Casino High as well. Rochelle was the one who went through parliament and organised for the GST to be taken off and also now they will be providing sanitary items for everybody in hospitals because hospitals weren’t providing anything. That’s just gone through legislation too. No woman or girl should have to go through not being able to afford or access sanitary items which are a necessity.”