Show your ❤️ for Chrystal Winfield

Chrystal lost her mum at the age of 10.

At the same time, she was grappling with the revelation that the man she'd been living with was actually her stepfather.

When she was 12, Chrystal met her biological dad and they formed an immediate bond. Even though he wasn't in any state to look after her, they would talk every day and see one another on school holidays.

By 14, Chrystal's stepfather had moved away and she found herself living with a series of different families. While Chrystal was endlessly grateful for their support, the frequent moves left her feeling untethered, and she yearned for a place to call home.

When she was 16, Chrystal found her own place to rent, and with the help of her friends, she was able to complete her schooling in Ballina.

At 18, Chrystal moved to Sydney with plans to start her own business. It was an exciting chapter in Chrystal's life, and she threw everything she had into her new career. She was now a lot closer to her dad, but there would always be a part of Chrystal, back in Lennox Head, waiting for her mum to come home.

In her early twenties, Chrystal was in Bali for work when she made a last-minute change of plans to meet a friend at the Raja Hotel. She narrowly avoided the horror of the Kuta bombing, but it was enough to trigger Chrystal's traumatic childhood again, and she struggled to cope.

In her late twenties, Chrystal lost her biological father to heart failure. She was devastated. The shock convinced her to retire her business and focus more on herself and her family. Before too long, Chrystal had met her first husband and together they built their dream home.

By her late thirties, Chrystal was finally beginning to feel like her life had taken a turn for the better. In 2020, Chrystal was blessed with a son, and while he was everything she had ever dreamed, her new role as a mother brought back complicated memories of her own mum.

Nursing her newborn baby during the height of the COVID pandemic, Chrystal felt isolated and suffered terrible post-natal depression. Before she was able to get the help she needed, Chrystal had lost her dream home and then her marriage.

Our beautiful friend Chrystal has endured more than most people do in a lifetime.

So when she was approached last year by professional scammers, she was in an understandably vulnerable state. Desperate for closure, when the scammers told Chrystal that they could lift the shadow she felt had been hanging over her for decades, she made the irrational decision to trust them.

The scammers stole Chrystal's life savings—the $300,000 she had set aside to build a home for her and her son.

When her school friends found out, we were appalled that someone would take advantage of Chrystal's tragedy. We decided to do something about it, so we set up this campaign to help.

We can't right the wrongs of the past, but together we can return Chrystal's savings to her. We can restore her dream of building her own tiny home, and a community of tiny homes to support people struggling with the cost of living.

We can give Chrystal back her future. We can give her our love and support. And we can give her son the lifetime of happy memories that Chrystal was denied.