REBECCA Magro has busying herself with a new custom order for her country wares business when a strange sensation grazed her foot - little did she know, she was close to death.
"It was terrifying, totally unexpected," she said.
"I was out in the backyard on the pavers (around three weeks ago). I was going to sand back a customer's set of (cow) horns because I do a lot of custom work.
"I didn't actually feel (the snake) bite me but I could feel it around my ankle. I couldn't even look at it, I was so scared.
"I was just shaking my leg and shaking. I felt it go flying and I actually had the guts to look and that's when I saw...a juvenile eastern brown."
She looked down at her leg and saw a series of small blood dots.
"I didn't feel two fangs going on. I thought 'did it just graze me?'. It all happened so fast," she said.
"I didn't want to waste resource by calling the ambulance if it was just a graze."
Certain she had not been bitten, she contacted her neighbours, and one neighbour - currently studying nursing - came to her aid.
"She came straight over and wrapped it and somehow kept me calm until the (Mareeba) ambulance arrived," Ms Magro said.
"The (Cairns) hospital kept in touch the whole time until the ambulance got there. The doctor rang...the whole service was just amazing.
"Then they organised to meet a helicopter out there, the rescue chopper. The ambulance came out and then put my leg in a splint and did obs and whatnot.
"I don't remember the helicopter ride from Mount Molloy to Cairns. It's all a bit of a blur...but I do recall all the medical staff that saw me said the same thing; 'you're so lucky girl, you ought to buy a Lotto ticket'."
While Ms Magro fortunately recovered quickly, discharged from hospital the next day, she still suffered from bad headaches for a week afterwards, with dizziness, fainting and lower back pain still occurring.
"I just feel so incredibly lucky. I had a snake expert come over and he said to me if it had been a Taipan I probably would be dead'," she said.
"I was bitten a few times, a couple were probably dry bites. I'm so incredibly grateful to be alive. It's just so scary to realise how easily it can happen."
Ms Magro said she had since learned how many people can be unaware they have even been bitten after a snake bite.
"You can be walking through the grass and get bitten and not realise until you feel the effects because the teeth are so fine on the little ones. It can feel like a stick or grass brushing you," she said.
Ms Magro, who runs her own business, Cowgirl Country, said the timing was inopportune given she was in the middle of relocating to a new warehouse.
But with the grand opening day just around the corner, she had planned to thank emergency services in a special way.
"I will have a raffle going as my way of helping the emergency services and also giving them the recognition they deserve," she said.
"With so many things in life, people take (them) for granted. It's not until you need them that you realise how hard they work, and their job doesn't always have that good outcome. I really take my hat off to those guys.
"I've donated one of large beautiful sets of horns, splitting all proceeds between Mareeba ambulance and Cairns'...rescue helicopters."
While she's still not 100 per cent, she is working hard to get ready for the big day.
"I am literally a one-woman operation...(so I don't have) the privilege of taking sick days unless I really have to...but us country girls are tough. We get in and do what we need to do. We soldier on."
