A FORMER Brisbane Queen from Largs who is 'living the dream' down under has completed an epic challenge to raise money for a children's charity.

Laurie Johnston, 40, had entered this year's New York and Sydney marathons, both of which had to be cancelled due to the current Covid19 restrictions.

The determined mum instead set up her own marathon challenge friend Ellie.

Laurie, who is an estate agent in New South Wales, said: "It has been our goal to complete a marathon this year so we continued training and ran the distance ourselves.

"Hopefully this can show people that with a positive mind and setting your goals you can still achieve an outcome."

Laurie, who lives in the coastal town of Thirroul, said: "I always said if I was going to run a marathon it would be for a cause and I was to run on behalf of the Harry Perkins Institute that raise money for cancer research. When New York was cancelled I looked closer to home and was scheduled to run in Sydney, but a second wave of coronavirus saw that called off too.

"When it was cancelled we thought let’s run our own.

"I have friends with kids the same age as mine going through cancer right now and my boss has a daughter who’s spent three quarters of her life in hospital, so that was my drive and Ellie, who is a paramedic, sees the need for this medical equipment first hand."

Humpty Dumpty provide much needed medical equipment specifically for kids across Australia.. they have raised $70 million to date and in 2019 provided 450 pieces of equipment to hospitals.

Both Laura and Ellie enlisted the help of a personal trainer to help them through the gruelling 42.2k challenge.

The former Largs Academy pupil added: "The fact this was for charity gave us that drive to smash it."

Laurie lives with her partner Ty Oxley and they have two children Hunter, nine, and Baya-Cruz, seven. Laurie's parents Graham and Lorna left Largs in 2011 to be closer to the family down under.

Although she has lived in Australia now for 20 years, the 1996 Brisbane Queen still calls Scotland home.

She added: "I'm a Largs girl and always will be."

The courageous duo have raised $6,100 as a result of the run but you can still donate. To do so visit www.gofundme.com/f/marthon-for-kids-in-need?