Content warning: This article contains mentions of mental illness, disordered eating and alcoholism.
Lisa Curry appeared on ABC’s Australian Story on Monday night and revealed that she’s still trying to process her daughter’s death.
Jaimi-Lee Kenny passed away in September 2020, aged 33, after battling alcoholism and an eating disorder for years.
Former Olympian Lisa, who has just released her memoir, Lisa, By Lisa Curry, said through tears, “Jaimi was only 33, she had a whole life to live. I haven’t been able to talk about it because you can see what it does to me.
Lisa has just released her first memoir.
(Image: ABC)
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“All I’ve done for two years is sit and cry and eat… you know I feel like s**t.”
Lisa also explained how she intends to one day help other families who are facing a situation similar to what she experienced.
“I’m still in a state where I’m still trying to work it out because if I can help someone else,” she said.
“Here’s something that I’ve learnt, it might help another family. But I don’t know… I can’t seem to do it. It’s annoying. If I knew the answers, I’d be shouting them to the world.”
Her son Jett Kenny spoke of his mother’s strength during the episode.
“She’s very hard on herself with all of that. And dad was the same. But Mum’s a strong woman. Like, she will… she’ll push through it,” he said.
Over the weekend, Lisa shared an emotional plea for better mental health support in Australia.
Taking to Instagram, 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.
“Here’s something that I’ve learnt, it might help another family. But I don’t know.”
(Image: ABC)“I wish we could go back to the time before it was too late, and try again, try something else.”
“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.”
WATCH: Lisa Curry’s video tribute to daughter Jaimi. Story continues after video.
Details of the night Jaimi passed were disclosed days earlier when Lisa shared a snippet from her book.
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.
Jaimi was hospitalised and seemed stable under sedation, but soon after, she was placed on a ventilator.
Her condition was critical, Lisa recalled 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.’
“I ran to her and called softly, ‘Jaimi, Jaimi, it’s Mum. Open your eyes, baby, open your eyes.”
(Image: ABC)“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.
“Even though we’d known for years this time would come, we didn’t want it to be real,” recounted Lisa.
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.
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