A former anti-vaxxer once feared a conspiracy theory that medical professionals were out to get people sick and take away their health and happiness.
Hannah McGowan, believing the theory so much, refused to vaccinate her two sons, but now she's changed her mind.
The mum, who has Crohn's disease - a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract, said she had been struggling to find answers and was having poor treatment at the hands of medical professionals.
"It's a horrible, horrible disease and I was looking for answers, and when I heard in about '98, '99, that the MMR vaccine could be related to Crohn's disease, possibly even giving people Crohn's disease, I jumped on that because that was an answer.
"I had an agenda I suppose - I was already on the path of not trusting pharmaceuticals and doctors - and I found this whole other world that seemed based on science and seemed to have some truth about it, and I went for it."
After getting pregnant, that's when her belief "really took off", Ms McGowan said. "I thought "these are my children, I don't want them to get Crohn's" and I just went for it. I did every natural, alternative thing to try and keep my children healthy and save them from my fate.
"I was terrified that they would end up as sick as I was and vaccination was one of those things I just couldn't risk. I was so fearful."
The community of anti-vaxxers had an "us against the world" mentality, Mr McGowan said. There was an idea of a conspiracy out to make everyone sick and take away health and happiness from people, and that people were blindly following what they were being told to do, she said.
"It's great to have an open mind and question things but it makes you susceptible to believing things that aren't based on critical thought and science."
Since then, Ms McGown has made a 180 degree turn in her beliefs, but she said it was a "long, slow process" to get where she is now.
She started associating with new "normal" people who frankly thought her ideas and beliefs were "bonkers", she said, but who opened her up to a different perspective.
The anti-vaccination path hadn't lead her anywhere either so she decided to give it a shot, she said. Doing her own research and reading was a way to start trusting science again.
The World Health Organisaton says vaccine hesitancy is now a top 10 global threat, but after seeing both sides of the debate, Ms McGowan urged hesitant people to put faith into medicine.
"They're highly tested, highly regulated and they're really safe. Statistically the chances of anything happening, any kind of severe reaction, are so non-existent.
"Any healthy person that can otherwise get vaccinated should be vaccinated because then you are protecting other vulnerable people like the elderly, and people undergoing chemotherapy. You've got to do it."
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