For 20 years Jenny Johnston has been single-handedly promoting and fundraising for Children’s Medical Research Institute in her small regional town, so it was no surprise when Gilgandra Shire Council recently named her as Citizen of the Year.

Perhaps the only person who was shocked was Jenny herself!

“I don’t do it for awards, so it was very overwhelming,’’ Mrs Johnston said.

“I was very proud, so much of what I do is about our community.

“It is an amazing feeling to think that I’ve been doing this for 20 years and people are still supporting me.’’

Mrs Johnston started out distributing Jeans for Genes merchandise through local shops. She would drop off badges and pens, then collect the money and deposit it to CMRI.

Over the years this has now expanded to her organising lots of little fundraising events throughout the year. Most recently she started collecting bottles and cans for the Return and Earn program – including from a local pub – and since August last year raised an amazing $5000.

After her recent award Mrs Johnston was asked to speak to a group of year 6 students about leadership and at a Probus Club. Her message to both was the same – little things make a big difference.

“I told them you don’t have to do big things. If everyone just did one small thing – that’s how you make a difference,’’ she said.

“You don’t have to have this one big event, just a few little things throughout the year all add up. There is so much competition among charities now you have to really fight to, not only fundraise, but to educate people about what you are doing.

“That’s why I like talking to the schools about the importance of research. These kids, they are all health so it’s important for them to learn about how lucky they are and that’s not the case for everyone.’’

Mrs Johnston has seen firsthand the difference that research can make and has no intention of stopping her incredible fundraising any time soon.

“If I stop doing this that’s $20,000 that doesn’t go to research and research is the difference between my husband dying of cancer and, 10 years later, me surviving cancer. Research saved me.’’