I was your average twenty something.

I had a decent job. A nice car. My own house with a pittance of a mortgage. A healthy social life ... and no history of abusive boyfriends. In 2002, I entered into what I thought, was a loving relationship. It didn't take many months before I discovered that it wasn't ... but by that time, I was already in too deep and felt unable to get myself out.

People think it will never happen to them. They think they know how they will react if it did.

The reality is often very different.

Domestic Abuse is more wide spread than many of us could even begin to imagine because it is so often kept secret, through fear and shame. The abusers are often skilled and manipulative, quickly isolating their victim and then normalizing their behaviour so they don't even realise what is happening until it's too late.

10 years down the line, with the help of many, I did break free. 

I lost all my worldly goods in the process, but I was okay. I lived to tell the tale. Many do not. 

Women's Aid played a crucial part in my journey. Without them, I would probably still be there. With more and more funding being cut, these services desperately need money and now, it's my turn to do what I can, to give back.

My book, a fictionalised memoir, is being published in November 2015. I hope that it will spread the word of this amazing organisation. This Just Giving page has been set up, separately to any personal donations I make, for any of my readers who wish to make a donation.