Every week, stories about armed hold-ups fill TV news bulletins, with focus usually on the offender and the security vision of their crime.

At first glance armed robbery may appear like a victimless crime.

But for those facing the frightening experience of having a gun or knife thrust in their face, the impact can be severe and long lasting.

Melissa Hutton remembers vividly when she was caught up in an armed robbery 12 years ago.

"It was a Tuesday, which is generally a quiet day," she said.

"I was just behind the desk doing a bit of work.

"I heard someone say something to me, I've looked up, I didn't hear them approach and I looked up and he had a gun and was pointing it over the counter.

"He continually demanded money and threatened my life.

"He told me to get on the ground with the gun pointing it at me and I did that."

The armed robbery at the bank where she worked on Brisbane's northside changed her life.

"We'd all been trained in terms of what to do in an armed hold-up," Ms Hutton said.

Melissa Hutton has been a victim of two armed robberies. ( ABC News )

"So just hoping - going through my mind, so what am I supposed to do? Turn side on, not be aggressive, do what they ask for and that sort of thing - instinctively it did sink in thankfully.

"But it was the first thing that went through my mind when I saw the barrel of the gun was 'will I see my kids again'."

She took four weeks off before feeling ready to return to her job.

But on the very day she did, in a cruel twist of fate, she was the victim of another hold-up.

This time, the offender was armed with a knife.

"I guess I worked really hard to get myself in a position to go back to work," she said.

"For that to happen - it just set me back so much further.

"I often wonder if that hadn't happened, would I still be working there.

"But that moment I decided 'Nah, this isn't for me anymore, I just can't do it'."

It was then that Ms Hutton fell apart.

For two years she spent her days lying on the couch at home, with her windows and doors locked.

"It was like two years of my life where nothing happened," she said.

Other than I would drive the kids to school - I wouldn't go in, walk them in anymore - I'd have the car doors locked.

"I'd drop them off and then I'd pick them up at the end of the day. I stopped doing the groceries, my husband would go and get the groceries.

"I wouldn't even go and get the mail from the mailbox."

More than 340 hold-ups in Queensland this year to date

The statistics on armed robberies are staggering.

In Queensland, there have already been more than 340 hold-ups this year.

In the first six months of 2015, there were 130 in Brisbane alone.

Banks, bottle shops, convenience stores and service stations are the usual targets.

Lyn Smith came face-to-face with her attacker while she was on a night shift at a service station in Brisbane's south.

"In a service station, you're like a sitting duck because there's no-one else working with you a lot of the time," she said.

"The person who came in was armed with a knife and they tried to jab it at me.

"It seemed really surreal at the time, you wonder if it actually happened, cause it only takes a few seconds," Ms Smith said.

Someone tried to stab Lyn Smith at the service station she worked at. ( ABC News )

She returned to work quickly, but soon began to unravel.

"Six months later I had a trigger, and that was finding a knife underneath the console," she said.

"That just triggered everything back in my brain again and my body started to shake.

"I came home one day and I started to shake and I didn't stop shaking for eight months.

"I had to stay in a wheelchair, and also in hospital, because I was a complete mess."

So much so, she became suicidal.

"I also took an overdose, like a really large overdose, because I just couldn't cope anymore," she said.

"I just got to the stage where it was all too hard."

Unlike for many other crimes, the media focus of armed robberies is rarely on the victim.

It is on the offender and the grainy yet compelling CCTV of their offence.

Those unwittingly caught up in the crime often feel overlooked - a feeling that can hinder their recovery.

Prison program brings offenders and victims together

For both Ms Hutton and Ms Smith - rehabilitation came from attending a program called the Sycamore Tree, run in Queensland jails by the Prison Fellowship, which brings offenders and victims together.

"That was the first time anyone had ever listened to my story I felt, and validated it, and that came from the prisoners themselves," Ms Hutton said.

"Since doing the course I've found each time I do it I feel I learn something more.

"Each time I do it I feel better - it's a healing process.

"That takes a long time to heal, I'm still healing."

Sycamore Tree is about telling their stories, but also about seeing the affect their words have on offenders.

"They change their mindset and when they change their mindset and seeing the other side they become more empathetic and start to be a human being again," Ms Smith said.

Far from being a victimless crime, offenders hear first hand how their actions can damage their victims, even when there is no physical harm.

David Way, who runs Queensland's Prison Fellowship, said that moment when 'the penny drops' for offenders was incredibly rewarding for victims.

"When they see that level of empathy grow, there's actually a healing that comes from the sharing because there's a change within the prisoner," he said.

"Often perpetrators of crime think that 'well, their insurance will cover it', or 'they were wealthy enough', 'why does it matter, they've got enough money'.

"But when they go through the program they get a bit of a revelation of the personal impact on victims."

Ms Hutton has witnessed that moment of revelation.

"They all said they never understood, or couldn't even comprehend that a victim of a robbery would be impacted, which I found quite difficult to hear that they couldn't even think that I would have been impacted, or any victim of robbery would have been impacted," she said.

"So they were quite shocked to hear that it changed my life."

In some ways though, Ms Hutton's life has changed for the better.

She now works in youth justice, bringing young offenders together with their victims, which gives those like her a voice.