We've Got Your Back program offers peer-to-peer support in the bush

The Tilpa local, who with her family farms at Vidale Station, 75 kilometres north-east of Wilcannia, has been through two bouts of bowel cancer treatment, which saw her regularly travelling hundreds of kilometres away or spending weeks apart from her family in the city.

But Belinda is now cancer-free and is giving back to her community as the newest of five rural 'Champions' for Royal Flying Doctor Service and Lifeline program - We've Got Your Back.

We've Got Your Back is a peer-to-peer mental health program which sees Champions - local graziers who themselves have been through hard times - engage in conversations about mental health and wellbeing, provide advocacy for people impacted by drought and illness, and link others in their community to appropriate services.

Project coordinator Emma Osman said the program, which launched last year, was the first of its kind in pastoral regions of Far Western NSW.

"The Champion's are sharing their stories with the knowledge that by doing so, someone might identify with them and feel comfortable to reach out," Emma said.

"It may be drought, travelling away from home due to illness as Belinda did, hardships that are unique to people living remotely, so speaking to someone who understands that context can make a big difference."

Belinda said it was a program she would have found incredibly helpful during the years she went through cancer treatment.

"My life for nearly six years was doctors, specialists, oncologists, it was a very clinical world," Belinda said.

"But, if I could have just sat down on someone's verandah in the sun with a cuppa or a beer I think that would have really helped. And it's not that I couldn't do that with my lovely friends, but sometimes everyone's busy or you feel you don't want to burden them too much."

Belinda said she had been having symptoms for months before she was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2011.

"I was too terrified to do anything about it, I wasn't yet 40 when it started," she said.

"Tilpa had its monthly Flying Doctor Clinic and my friend was hosting one month, I rang her and said I really need to go and see the doctor and she squeezed me in."

The news from the doctor was difficult to hear, he wanted her to get tested for bowel cancer. "You can imagine what those words did to me," Belinda said.

In the week's period it took for Belinda to get to Broken Hill for the tests, her tumour grew to the stage where it had completely blocked her bowel.

"The pain I had was pretty horrendous and it took another few weeks for it to be fully diagnosed," she said.

Belinda then faced six months of chemotherapy, which involved travelling to Broken Hill, 280km away, once a fortnight and Wilcannia for checks in between.

She eventually got the all clear, but two years later it was back.

"I found that terribly hard to get my head around because I thought it had gone, but then bang, all of a sudden you hit rock bottom again."

Belinda was looking at another six months of therapy and six weeks of radiation in Adelaide, away from her family.

"Being there by myself, this bush girl in the city, it was scary," she said.

"But where there's a negative, there's a positive because that pushed me out of a comfort zone."

Throughout it all, Belinda was supported by not only family and friends, but the whole Tilpa community. So when she was once again given the all clear, she decided to give something back and became the Tilpa Clinic Coordinator for the Royal Flying Doctor.

"It's a role I take on very dearly and I really enjoy being able to reach out to the community and let them know who's coming and what's happening," Belinda said.

But, the Royal Flying Doctor mental health team realised Belinda was doing much more than that and asked her to become a Champion for We've Got Your Back earlier this year.

"I think they saw I had a close connection with a lot of the community because of my clinic role and having just been here for such a long time, you're good mates with everyone," Belinda said.

"I was really honoured and extremely proud to be asked to take that role on."

Belinda said her role was about being available to people when they need to talk and giving them support and guidance so they know they're not on their own.

"I'm not a clinician, I'm a mate, but I can guide them," she said.

Two new Champions are set to join the team shortly. "We will have Champions geographically dispersed throughout the region to make peer support accessible throughout the Far West," Emma said.

"The RFDS South Eastern Section and Lifeline Broken Hill Country to Coast is very appreciative of the Champions and the important support they are extending to others in their communities."

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