Queensland farmers Chris and Malcolm Jukes considered splitting their family to access health care in Brisbane for disabled child Chris and Malcolm Jukes desperately need support to care for their special needs daughter, Millie, 8. HOW far would you go if your eight-year-old daughter was severely handicapped and had to deal with a non-existent standard of health care? Chris and Malcolm Jukes are average Queenslanders but the critical lack of anything other than basic health care in many parts of the state was forcing them into making a terrible decision. Their eight-year-old daughter, Millie, needed constant care as well as specialists and Chris desperately needed help. Chris was seriously considering splitting their small family, moving to the city and leaving Malcolm to work the cattle property near Morven in western Queensland and a 10-hour drive from Brisbane. "I am just like any mum trying to cope with a daughter with a disability and now has to cope with this disastrous drought," Chris said. I am so tired and would like some type of help. The Jukes are not alone. The bush is full of tragic stories of people suffering with poor standard health care due to what Health Minister Lawrence Springborg calls the tyranny of distance. For Chris, it is another example of how rural Queenslanders are discriminated against for the most basic of services. Mill has never had a label (diagnosis) so this also prevents her from receiving certain funding. If she had cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome ... she may be eligible," Chris said. Agforce chief executive Charles Burke said the services needed for some cases were simply not located in the bush. "This sometimes means families must be separated for extended periods of time and this is no doubt an extra weight at a time when that family is already under pressure," he said. The Courier-Mail found the Jukes family a month ago when they were desperate, but in this one case, Queensland Health has gone some way to redeeming itself. There is a telehealth Connected Care program that Millie has been placed in. She will get a case worker in Brisbane who will co-ordinate appointments. Disability Services has organised funding for respite care and Queensland Health will now pay for Millie's flights.