"I'VE always been a bit of a trailblazer."
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Jan Roberts has been pioneering mental health and women's health services in rural areas since the 1970s.
She has faced many obstacles that have failed to deter her and today Ms Roberts is being recognised for shining the spotlight on what were once taboo topics with an Order of Australia Medal.
In the 1960s Ms Roberts was one of the first females admitted into the all-male University of Sydney residential college, Wesley College.
Spending 10 years in the city, Ms Roberts described coming back to Wagga as a shock.
"In the city a woman could walk into a pharmacy and get contraception that was unheard of in Wagga," Ms Roberts said.
Wanting to change women's access to health services, Ms Roberts, along with a group of ambitious women, founded the Wagga Women's Health Centre (WWHC) in the 1970s.
"These issues have been dear to my heart since the 1960s," Ms Roberts said.
"I'm interested in sustainability not just environmental but social."
Ms Roberts is vice-president of WWHC and spends a great deal of time in her role of principal official visitor.
Appointed by the NSW Minister for Health, official visitors are independent of the health system and aim to safeguard the rights and dignity of people undergoing care.
Reporting to Sydney from rural areas, Ms Roberts said her role provided a unique type of consultation.
"I believe somebody with a rural background has a greater understanding of how to improve things on the ground there is a difference in thinking between country people and city people," Ms Roberts said.
For Ms Roberts, the decision to accept an OAM was a difficult one that she mulled over for days.
Ms Roberts hoped that by accepting the award, she would draw awareness to the causes she has been advocating for most of her life.
"I thought if it gives (the causes) some profile, I'll do it."
