Content warning: This article contains mentions of mental illness, disordered eating and alcoholism.
Lisa Curry has shared an emotional plea for better mental health support in Australia almost two years after losing her daughter, Jaimi Lee Kenny.
Though the exact details of the 33-year-old’s death have not been released publicly, Lisa has made it clear that mental health issues played a key role in the tragedy.
Lisa Curry with her daughter Jaimi Lee Kenny before her death.
(Image: Instagram)Taking to Instagram on Sunday, the 59-year-old opened up about the grief she still lives with and why she wants no other parent to experience it.
“Some days it feels like you can’t continue, but the sun still rises and life goes on… but it’s never the same,” Lisa penned.
“I wish we could go back to the time before it was too late, and try again, try something else.”
Prior to her sad death from a long-term illness, Jaimi had struggled with disordered eating and alcoholism, and Lisa wants better support for people like her daughter.
“We put men on the moon, people live in space stations, build the biggest ships and the tallest buildings that sway in the storms, the most brilliant scientific minds can solve incredible diseases, robots and machines are designed to help people walk again…
but we can’t work out how to fix mental health issues?” the grieving mother continued.
“Someone … please… make this a priority in your scientific mind. Please. Help all the Jaimi’s in this world.”
Her emotional plea comes just days after Lisa opened up about Jaimi’s sudden death in an extract from her upcoming biography, Lisa: A memoir.
In it the former Olympian revealed that the tragedy began when her daughter called her and said she was vomiting blood, prompting Lisa and ex-husband Grant Kenny to call an ambulance.
WATCH: Morgan Gruell video from sister Jaimi’s birthday celebrations. Story continues after video.
Jaimi was hospitalised and seemed stable under sedation, but soon after things took a turn and the 33-year-old was placed on a ventilator.
Her condition was critical, Lisa recalling in her memoir, via the Daily Telegraph: “I ran to her and called softly, ‘Jaimi, Jaimi, it’s Mum. Open your eyes, baby, open your eyes. Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.’
“But there was no response, there was just nothing. I was numb.”
Her daughter’s kidneys shut down soon after and Lisa was told by doctors “Jaimi will die tonight”, urging her to prepare herself.
The Curry-Kenny family honour Jaimi’s memory together.
(Image: Instagram)“Even though we’d known for years this time would come, we didn’t want it to be real,” Lisa said of her and Grant’s emotional states at the time.
Jaimi died in September 2020 aged 33, but Lisa and her wider family have been working hard to keep her daughter’s memory alive in the years since.
From memorial services to regular conversations about the importance of mental health, Lisa is making sure other families don’t have to live through the same heartache her daughter’s tragic death caused her.
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
