The quiet achievers in our society deserve a mention.
Heroes can come in many forms. Some are immediately recognisable by face and name. Others are behind the scenes workers, more comfortable in anonymity. All the people in 'Unsung Heroes' deserve medals, fame and fortune, but this is definitely the last thing on their minds as they go to work.
Moira Kelly has already been awarded the Order of Australia, however, it's the smiles on the faces of the overseas children she brings to Australia for life-saving operations by Australian doctors that give her the endurance to run her Children First Foundation. Then there's Mavis Taylor who, in her eighties, decided to skip lawn bowls and bingo in favour of setting up a women's sewing cooperative in East Timor.
Unsung Heroes are not all volunteers, though. Sometimes, like Northern Territory-based Aboriginal tracker, John Daly, their work involves sharing valuable, rare skills in order to help the community. For others, like Peter Davidson, doing their job puts their own life at risk. He's a mobile intensive-care flight paramedic with the Air Ambulance, and he rescued eight people from treacherous conditions in the 1998 Sydney-Hobart yacht race. But as Davidson says: "The word hero just doesn't sit comfortably with me."
