Sisters’ search for colour in farm workwear aims to save lives

Longreach sisters Shona Larkin and Angie Nisbet are building a colourful alternative for farmers’ uniforms, with the hope of saving lives.

Searching for colour in the daily farm uniform has led two Longreach sisters to launch a “glove up” campaign to save lives.

Angie Nisbet, 37 and Shona Larkin, 38, started their new venture, FarmHer Hands, to provide a range of sun-safe gloves for farmers, in response to a lack of skin check services in rural areas.

Shona Larkin and Angie Nisbet, Longreach, launched FarmHer Hands eight months ago. Picture: Supplied

They said their personal experiences with skin cancer had motivated the cause, including their two-year goal to glove 8000 women.

Angie said she was impassioned to raise awareness about Australian skin cancer statistics, particularly among agricultural workers and rural women.

Shona had a stage two melanoma removed in 2016; she has since been cleared. Meanwhile, Angie’s best friend Bridget died from cancer in 2019.

“It all stemmed from a melanoma not properly being taken out,” Angie said.

“The whole time she was so gracious and not scared, I think about her a lot.”

Shona said her own diagnosis came when she attended her annual check-up and noticed a mole had changed.

Their closest specialty clinic at Townsville meant she had to take the 1200km round trip twice.

“I had to return as soon as possible to have it removed,” she said.

Shona has since been cleared, and said she wanted to ensure people understood the importance of caring for their skin and attending annual checks.

“We’re from the generation where we would lather up in coconut oil,” she said.

“In our earlier years we used to run around in shorts, a shirt, and sun protection wasn’t a big thing.”

Shona, her husband Larko and their four children, and Angie, her husband Sam and their three children, run 3500-head of white Brahman cattle and 17,000 goats on their Longreach properties.

The business idea formed when the sisters stopped paddock work for a cuppa.

“I pulled my gloves off and said ‘they are so boring, I wish there was something else on the market’,” Shona said.

“Angie turned to me and said ‘why don’t we make our own’.”

The gloves are certified under national regulations, ARPANSA, and have UPF 50+ sun protection.

Sisters Angie Nisbet and Shona Larkin, Longreach, launched FarmHer Hands eight months ago. Picture: Supplied

Angie said in the long-term, they hoped to find ways to offer rural communities skin checks locally.

“There’s such a huge gap of health services for people to go in and get skin checks done,” she said.

For now, their message was to simply “glove up”.

“Sun protection can be cool and it can be really fun, it might save one person’s life and if it does that then we’re stoked,” Angie said.

Angie Nisbet and Shona Larkin have been nominated for the 2024 Shine Awards, which celebrate the achievements of rural and regional women across Australia. Click here to nominate an outstanding woman you know.

Originally published as Sisters’ search for colour in farm workwear aims to save lives