It’s a cause that is very close to home.
As she counts down the days until Christmas, Christie Hayes is excited for what’s to come.
The star and her husband, Justin, are packing up her sons from a previous marriage, Hendrix, 10, and 9-year-old Harley, to celebrate the holidays in Canada.
“We are having a snowy Christmas this year,” the 38-year-old actress and radio host tells WHO about the family’s upcoming trip. “It’s been a dream of mine for so many years and I really want my boys to experience that magic of a white Christmas.”
Of course, while it is often referred to as the most wonderful time of the year, the festive season is anything but for many.
For a country that is already grappling with a domestic violence crisis, the extra stress and financial pressures of this time of year are expected to lead to a sharp increase in incidents over the holidays.
Christie experienced just how dangerous the period can be during her teenage years after an earlier relationship turned violent one December.
“We were at the airport ready to take off on vacation and my partner found a Christmas card I’d written for one of my friends, a co-star on Home and Away, and as he read it, he got highly jealous and punched me in the side of the face,” Christie explains.
“I went into the bathroom and cried in the toilet cubicle as quietly as I could and wiped the blood off my face. I was really embarrassed and worried that someone had seen, so when I came out and no-one reacted, I thought, ‘Great, I got away with it,’ but of course, I hadn’t done anything wrong.”
The incident occurred at a public venue, during the height of Christie’s noughties fame as she was beamed into lounge rooms across the country five nights a week as Kirsty Sutherland on Home and Away.
“It was a time when there were a lot of eyes on me and many people knew who I was,” she says. “So if that can happen to me in public, just imagine what goes on behind some closed doors.”
Christie, who has long since left that violent relationship, is throwing her support behind an important program that helps others who are in unsafe circumstances.
The Safe Ride Out program provides women and families who are experiencing violence with free Uber rides to places such as shelters, police stations or important meetings that abusive partners may be actively trying to prevent.
“It’s about getting them out of the house, which can be lifesaving,” she says.
“Going to a lawyer’s office [can be difficult], if you have a partner who is exercising control by taking the keys off you or by keeping the registration in their name. Not everyone can just call a cab or turn to a friend, because in a lot of instances, the abuse has involved cutting the person off from their other loved ones.”
Safe Rides can be booked by members of Wesnet, Australia’s peak body for women’s domestic and family violence services.
Demand for the rides jumped by a massive 63 per cent in the past year. As people go about buying their gifts, Wesnet is asking to be kept in mind for a small donation to help provide for this essential service.