Sarah Kanowski

This really happened.

And then COVID happened.

So it was only a month before or six weeks before all gyms shut.

And so I went back to work.

I continued to work for those six weeks.

I continued to pretend life was normal.

And then COVID happened and I was given permission to hide.

And so I did.

I think at the time I told myself it was a relief.

I was lucky to have COVID, to be able to hide and not face the world feeling the way that I was.

I was really lucky, to be honest, because all I wanted to do was just sit in my room and cry and...

..and just hate myself for not showing up.

But I thankfully had my brother, who just called every day, checked in, and even if I didn't have much to say, he would still check in.

And I think without that, I would have felt really isolated and alone in that space, and I was just so lucky to have him.

And then after restrictions were lifted, I started to...

look for therapy, and I checked into therapy with a really great trauma therapist, and that was a huge turning point as well.

So the MATE Bystander Program is a gender-based violence prevention program.

I have to give props to, you know, Alison Baden-Clay, Jeff and Priscilla Dickey, who, after Alison was murdered in 2012, started these big conversations around...

coercive control and were able to speak at it from that gendered space.

And their combination with the mate by step, mate was around before that, but I think it was their stories and the way they told her story and they spoke of her that made this real and made public awareness, raised public awareness around it.