When Chrissy Trueman, the 345th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, was growing up in Hobart, she made the news for a strange reason.

The family’s pet wombat had been loaned to a breeding program, run away, wandered off to the nearby casino, somehow made its way across the River Derwent (even though, at that time, there was no bridge) and then reappeared at a nearby friend’s place. Knowing a good yarn when it heard one, the Hobart Mercury newspaper decided to report the strange story.

Later, when Chrissy was working for AMP, the Mercury ran stories about her for a different reason. She was leading a program to provide financial advice for women – which was groundbreaking, because, at that time, financial affairs were considered to be men’s domain.

Earlier in her career, while working for a small Tasmanian bank, Chrissy had advanced the cause of female financial equality in a different way. She was single and wanted a mortgage, but that was impossible because women couldn’t get loans without a male guarantor. Chrissy told her bank that if it didn’t provide the loan, she’d resign; the board eventually agreed.

When Chrissy was in her early twenties and the mother of a young daughter, she was forced to endure a bitter custody dispute. Her ex was wealthy and had a crack legal team; by contrast, Chrissy was so strapped for cash that she had to represent herself. Remarkably, though, she won.

That experience ultimately led Chrissy to become a family lawyer, first in Hobart and now on the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, she deals with a lot of domestic violence cases – with the perpetrators almost always being men. Women may now have the same legal rights as men, but men remain physically stronger.

Chrissy is a passionate supporter of her clients’ interests, so it saddens her when she encounters injustice.

Away from work, Chrissy enjoys travelling and is a proud mother and grandmother.