At 4.30am on the fifth day of her 850km run to raise awareness of domestic violence, ultramarathon runner Kirrily Dear opened her email to find a message from a woman who was unable to walk as a result of domestic abuse.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“Your journey keeps me motivated for the future,” the woman wrote in her email to Kirrily.
Ms Dear said the message was a turning point in her 12-day White Ribbon Run through Western NSW.
“That day I ran with her message in the back of my mind,” she said. “My legs were her legs and she drove me for the final kilometres into Tamworth.”
Speaking to an International Women’s Day lunch in Mudgee on Wednesday, Ms Dear said her run from Walgett to Forbes in November, 2014, had been a life changing experience for everyone involved.
“If you do have the opportunities to speak out, please make the most of them.”
She admitted that before she began planning the run, she was naïve about the extent of domestic violence in Australia.
“Then 18 months ago, I read that one woman a week is killed by a current or former partner,” she said. “Being an analytical person, I checked the statistics – and they were even worse.
“I was in a complete state of shock. It was a thing that I just couldn’t get out of my head. I had to do something.”
With the backing of the White Ribbon, a national campaign to end violence by men against women, Ms Dear began planning the run through some of the communities most affected by domestic violence in NSW including Walgett, Burren Junction, Wee Waa, Boggabri, Manilla, Tamworth, Spring Ridge, Coolah, Mendooran, Dubbo, Yeoval, Parkes, and Forbes.
She set off in the hottest November in 57 years, with radiant heat from the road topping 50 degrees on five days of the run, and exceeding 55 degrees on three days.
Ms Dear said the most powerful driving force along the road was the messages from domestic violence sufferers, who followed her progress and shared their stories on her White Ribbon Ultramarathon page and came to meet her at stops along the way.
“A lot of times we felt like we were in a bubble, then someone would come flying up and yell encouragement,” she said.
“It started to build. We were getting drivers come up and stop on the road. One woman handed me her handbag and said ‘Take what you want’.
“And everyone who pulled up had a story to tell.”
Ms Dear said the aim of the run was to start a conversation about domestic violence.
“If people understand how big the problem is, they won’t stay silent,” she said.
“Often, it just takes people to say ‘that’s wrong’.
“If people start to question, they start to change and that’s how it starts – with lots and lots of little changes.
“If you do have the opportunities to speak out, please make the most of them.”
Ms Dear is currently fundraising to complete a documentary film about her run which is being completed by Thirty3South Films.
A trailer for the film was launched at the International Women’s Day Breakfast in Newcastle last week.
To view the documentary or for more information go to the Run Against Violence website, http://www.runagainstviolence.com
Wednesday’s International Women’s Day lunch was organised by the Mudgee People Against Violence Committee and sponsored by sponsored by Mid-Western Regional Council and Family and Community Services.
