Bali Nine families speak of their grief and plead to Tony Abbott for help.

The families of two Bali Nine drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia have pleaded to the Australian Government for help, in a final effort to save them from execution.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran face execution by firing squad after both had their pleas for clemency rejected by Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo.

After a decade-long journey, Raji Sukumaran has told the ABC she was “terrified” that her son Myuran could be executed in the coming days for attempting to traffic heroin into Australia.

“I’ve been told that my son will be taken out and shot at any time. I don’t know what to do,” she said.

“He’s done something stupid, he made a mistake, he’s apologised for that and he’s rehabilitated.

“Now I’ve been told he could just be given 72 hours and he’ll be taken out and shot.”

Holding back tears alongside her daughter Brintha and son Chinthu, Ms Sukumaran described the 33-year-old convicted drug smuggler as a “loving kid” who grew up in Sydney’s west and got caught up with the wrong crowd.

She did not comment on any final bids to prevent her son’s execution, but said she had full confidence in the Australian Government.

“I’m not giving up, and I know the Australian Government will do everything it can to bring the boys home, or even to stop the execution,” Ms Sukumaran said.

“They can’t do this to them.”

 Michael Chan concedes brother’s fate becoming a reality

Andrew Chan’s brother Michael said he was also holding out hope, saying “there are things that are being done” that would remain “behind closed doors”.

But Mr Chan said he conceded his 31-year-old brother’s fate was becoming a reality.

“The last couple of days have probably been worse for wear,” he said.

“I don’t think I’ve felt this way, probably, since the beginning when it first all happened.

“But to know that we’re sort of nearing the end of the road is heartbreaking.”

He is flying to Bali to be with his brother in the coming days.

“I’m just going to give him a hug,” he said. “There’s no words that can make it any better.”

Both families were quick to point out how much Chan and Sukumaran have changed since they were arrested in 2005.

Andrew Chan is studying to be a pastor, and runs first aid and cooking classes in Bali’s Kerobokan prison.

“If being in prison is to reform yourself, I think both the boys have done that,” Michael Chan said.

Ms Sukumaran said until he was denied a presidential pardon, her son never complained about prison life.

Instead, Sukumaran concentrated on his artwork and various projects in the complex, but she said now things have changed.

“He’s breaking into pieces, and there’s nothing I can do to help him,” she said.

“No mother should have to go through this, it’s killing us.”

Ms Sukumaran said the reality set in when she went shopping for her son yesterday.

She said she was used to taking supplies for Sukumaran, such as art books, to use in his cell.

“I don’t know how much to take, normally I’ll take about 60 kilograms,” she said.

Sense of hope makes waiting game as tolerable as possible

As they prepare to visit the men in Bali, the families expressed their anguish about the lack of certainty over when the men will be executed.

Michael Chan said there had been no direct contact from the Indonesian authorities, leaving him to only speculate about what to expect when the prisoners are given notice of their execution.

“It’s only what we pick up in the media,” he said.

“If it’s anything like going off what you read in the media, it’s pretty bleak.”

Mr Chan said explaining the situation to his mother, Helen Chan, was a challenge.

“How do you tell your own mother not to worry about something like that?” he said.

“I guess you’d like to say that it’s going to be okay … but in the back of your mind you know that the possibility is greater and greater every day.

“When do those 72 hours take effect? Is it another seven days down the track, is it 10 days or is it two days?

“You don’t know, and the whole thing of not knowing is probably the hardest bit of it all.”

For both families, a continuing sense of hope makes the waiting game as tolerable as possible.

“Before it used to be day-by-day for me, and it think that goes for the Sukumarans as well,” Mr Chan said.

“[Now] it’s hour-by-hour. Things change, but you can only do what you can do.”

The families’ plea comes as the Chan and Sukumaran’s lawyer, Julian McMahon, said a team of Indonesian lawyers had launched a judicial review of their cases.

Mr McMahon said the new legal bid to overturn the decision was not a last-ditch effort to give them a few weeks more to live, but was a “serious application” to have their sentences commuted to life in prison.

On Friday the Indonesian attorney-general’s office said it had received notice that Chan was to be executed, but no date or location had been decided.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott also made a public appeal on behalf of the convicted men, saying Chan and Sukumaran “deserve mercy”, and describing them as “reformed characters” who had helped to rehabilitate other prisoners.

This post originally appeared on the ABC website and has been republished with permission