SHE'S moved from a corner shop in Darwen to a place called Cockatoo.

In between she's got married on a surf beach, been awarded one of Australia's most prestigious honours -- oh and she's currently trying to turn her garden into a bird sanctuary. Stephanie Moore is one of those women you could never accuse of leading a quiet life.

Yet amazingly she claims that was totally unambitious as a teenager attending Blackburn Girls Grammar School.

"Even then though, I did want to travel," she says, "but at the time the word travel meant going across the Pennines to Yorkshire."

The 53-year-old has since emigrated twice to Australia, the second time to take up the post of director of Positive Women, an organisation that supports women with HIV and AIDS in the state of Victoria. This work brought her name to the attention of Australian Prime Minister John Howard and saw her awarded the prestigious Centenary Medal.

However, this is just one of several groundbreaking projects Stephanie has embarked on. The first time she emigrated to Australia in 1981, she founded a service to help people with drug and alcohol problems in Melbourne.

So, what inspires her to keep going?

"You do it because of your love of people and the feeling that you can make a difference," she explained.

"My jobs have included working with drug users and victims of sexual abuse. So something on the edge isn't really a big issue for me."

Having spent the last 20 years flitting between the UK and Australia, she has certainly achieved her schoolgirl dream to travel.

On a year-long visit to Scotland in 1987she fell in love and she and her fiance returned to the Antipodes to get married on a surfers' beach.

It was then that Stephanie got her current job at Positive Women, although her reasons were not entirely altruistic.

She said: "I thought the job sounded interesting plus there was a car attached to it and I needed a car!"

The service has done a lot of work to challenge misconceptions about AIDS and to help sufferers. Stephanie said: "Women meet to share stories, offer support and share information about treatments and their fears and concerns.

"It's important to have a women specific service. While we are not anti male we do believe there should be space for women only."

Having achieved so much, does Stephanie plan to rest on her laurels in the future?

What do you think?

She is currently working to raise one million dollars for a special treatment centre for women in Victoria.

And she added: "I'm now looking at the possibility of doing a PhD."

Although Stephanie admits she can still get very emotional about her Lancastrian roots, for now Cockatoo, near Melbourne, is very much her home. "Of course," she adds, "the sunshine, good food and wine help!"

Take a look at the Positive Women website...