It's fair to say North East-based Senate candidate Susan Benedyka has been put to the test in her first election campaign.
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If travelling thousands of kilometres across Victoria wasn't enough for the Byawatha resident, Ms Benedyka also had to grieve the death of her mother in the final stages.
"It's been a sadly interrupted campaign. My mum had a fall just before Easter and then passed away," she said.
"I was with her in her nursing home in Sydney and she died on her 86th birthday, which was very clever of her.
"We celebrated her life on Mother's Day, which was very clever of her as well."
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Ms Benedyka described her last 10 days on the campaign trail as "flat out"
"I've been to pretty well every pocket of the state except the far east of Gippsland, so when you think about it like that, the state's a big place," she said.
"I was literally driving from one event in Birchip over to another event in Mildura when I when I got the call mum was really bad."
Ms Benedyka said climate change and integrity were major issues for people most likely to vote independent, while various aspects of housing had also been raised with her on the campaign trail.
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