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This article discusses suicide and may be distressing for some readers. If you or anyone you know needs support, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or BeyondBlue on 1300 22 4636.
Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett was a 14-year-old girl when she ended her life in the first few days of 2018. Prior to her death, the teenager, from Australia’s Northern Territory, had been relentlessly cyberbullied.
Before she passed, Dolly left a drawing with the simple words: “Speak, even if your voice shakes.”
Those six words sent shivers down the spines of Australians as her devastating death stunned the nation – making headlines for weeks and months after.
Two years on from the tragedy, Kate tells Mamamia of the grief her family continues to endure and how they remain determined to shine a light on the severe impacts of bullying.
“People often ask us, ‘how do you cope? We say, ‘how can you not cope?'”
Kate says she and her husband Tick Everett “have learnt that grief is not linear nor is it predictable”.
“In the early days we made a promise to each other to take each day as it comes, with no expectation other than to make it through,” she says.
