Welcome to the first instalment of our latest website addition, ‘Let’s Talk’, featuring women from around Australia talking about their own health journeys.

First up, we’ll be bringing you profiles of some of the wonderful women we met while we were on the road recently with the ‘Heart Truck’, also known as the Heart of Australia, the mobile medical services unit founded by cardiologist Dr Rolf Gomes. For three years the Heart Truck, a 25-metre mobile clinic, has been regularly visiting towns in rural Queensland. A second truck is now set to take to the road, to visit more rural Queensland towns, in early 2018.

Sharon Porter, 63, Tamworth, NSW.

Like many people in rural Australia, Sharon Porter is used to driving long distances to access health services. On the day we meet her, she has driven four hours from Tamworth in New South Wales for her first appointment with the Heart Truck at Goondiwindi in Queensland.

“When you live in Tamworth you’ll drive a long way to see doctors,” she says. “It’s not remote, but it’s [a matter of] trying to get the professional care that you need.”

It was 12 months ago that Sharon first “took a turn”, feeling dizzy and tight in the chest. She knew she was at risk of heart attack, as her father and brother had both had heart attacks. “But even so, it took to have the turn [for me] to go to the doctor.”

Read full article here.