The Port Macquarie resident has spent her entire life on the Mid North Coast and over 50 years working in radiology administration.

But how much do we really know about Mrs Gibson? How has her background shaped her values and who she has become?

Mrs Gibson was born in 1943 and arrived in the middle of an intense storm.

Her family lived on a property near Rawdon Island at Hurley.

Mrs Gibson said she had a wonderful childhood but it was marred by tragedy when her grandfather died suddenly.

"I was six-years-old and I had asked him if he wanted a cup of tea," she said.

"He said 'no thank you possum'.

"I then heard the most horrific crash and he'd suffered a cardiac arrest.

"I still remember it today."

Mrs Gibson and her sister went away to boarding school, as travelling to and from Wauchope school was too far each day.

After three years it became too expensive for Mrs Gibson to continue school and she was sent to Kempsey to complete a TAFE course in administration.

"I was offered a job at the old Port Macquarie Base Hospital to cover the girls who were on leave," she said.

Mrs Gibson married her husband Geoffrey after meeting him through their church groups.

"He was the absolute best," she said.

The couple never had any arguments throughout their life together.

Mrs Gibson also worked at a lawyer's office at Port Macquarie, where on her first day she put her heel through the floor, as it was an old conflict building and the floors were rotten.

She left the office to have her baby daughter.

"I left on the Friday to have her on the Monday," she said.

Mrs Gibson said it was a hard time, as she relied on extended family to take care of her daughter so she could return to work.

Mrs Gibson was 20 years-old when she was offered a permanent role at the Port Macquarie Base Hospital.

There was a team which would work out of Wauchope some days.

Mrs Gibson described the medical equipment as being primitive.

"Clive (radiologist) used to bring in all the reports and I'd type them all up," she said.

One day Mrs Gibson opened an envelope, which she thought was unusually heavy.

She discovered - to her horror it had a big black dead snake inside.

"They had found him underneath the X-ray table at Wauchope, where there was a hole in floor," she said.

Mrs Gibson also had an encounter with another snake while she developed the X-rays, which she said had come through the air vents.

Mrs Gibson witnessed some extraordinary medical cases.

"One day we had man come in from the sawmill and he had a piece of timber right through him," she said.

"That man was conscious, how he was conscious I'll never know.

"It just missed his heart."

Mrs Gibson called the Williamtown Airforce to transport the man to Sydney, as in those days there was no similar service to that of the Westpac Helicopter.

In 1976 Mrs Gibson worked alongside Doctor Briscoe when the Mid North Coast Diagnostic Imaging was formed.

She described the people she worked with as being like family.

Mrs Gibson's husband Geoff's life was cut short while on holiday up north in 1991.

"It was terribly tragic for all of us," Mrs Gibson said.

The couple have two children - Amanda and Andrew.

Amanda has followed in her mother's footsteps and also works in radiology in Port Macquarie.

Mrs Gibson loved her job within radiology administration and she continued to work until she reached 76-years-old.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

Bookmark our website

Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters

You can support us with a subscription

Follow us on Twitter: @portmacnews

Follow us on Instagram: @portmacnews

Follow us on Google News