Bev's driving desire to make a difference

Bev Brock is better at doing things than watching from the sidelines.

Best known as the wife of the late Peter Brock, one of Australian motor racing's icons, Ms Brock is busier than ever doing charity work and being the grandmother of three children.

Ms Brock has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her long service to the community through working for and supporting charitable organisations.

With her work for the Skyline Education Foundation helping refugee and disadvantaged children finish high school, with Rotary and her work around the country as a speaker on road safety, Ms Brock has a full schedule but gives the impression she prefers things that way.

"I'd hate to be somebody who sat around saying they're bored with life," she says.

Instead of spectating, Ms Brock has travelled to mines around Queensland to speak to mine workers about the dangers of driving home tired after long shifts.

Drawing on her own tragic experience, she tells her audiences about the death of her husband, a nine-times Bathurst 1000 touring car champion who died in 2006 when he crashed into a tree while racing in a rally in Tasmania.

"It doesn't matter how good a driver you are, there are other factors that can come into play. If it can happen to him it can happen to anyone," Ms Brock says.

Ms Brock is also patron of the Lighthouse Foundation, a charity getting homeless young people into housing, and of the driver education program run by the Berry Street children's charity.

She has kept in touch with some people in the motor racing scene but doesn't go to race meetings anymore.

"I'm not the best at sitting and spectating," she says.