Order of Australia honour for local Lion

WITH almost three decades as a nurse and Lions member, Wendy Hellebrand considers herself a “late starter.”

In the late 1980s, she juggled five children during her nursing studies at Geelong’s Deakin University and started working at a Bannockburn doctors surgery the next decade.

Around that time, she relocated with her family from Belmont to Teesdale, and became the first female member of the town’s Lions branch in 1995.

Now, after nearly 30 years with the group, Ms Hellebrand is being recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia for this year’s Queen’s Birthday honour list.

Although humbled, she said she’s “a little bit embarrassed” to receive the award.

“Anything you do as a volunteer, it’s not just one person,” she said.

“If you don’t have the support of your team, your family, friends and your workplace you can’t actually achieve anything.

“I have a home, people that love me and the support network to do the things I’ve done, which really gives me an inner warmth and satisfaction that you don’t achieve from a lot of other things.”

Ms Hellebrand attributes her “first love” of volunteering to the example set by her mother.

Her work in the area led to accolades like the Leo Tyquin Award and 2015’s Rural Nurse Award, which she said are among her three proudest volunteering achievements.

“Another thing that’s very close to my heart is coordinating one of the Lions’ mobile skin check units,” she said.

“We travel eastern Victoria into South Australia checking for signs of cancer, and already we’ve done over 3400 checks over a 12-month period since we started.”

Ms Hellebrand said she’s keen to share her OAM with the community.

“You’re not feeling it just for yourself, you’re feeling it for everyone that’s helped you,” she said. “It’s always a team effort.”