Bring Katie home and lay her to rest

We are raising funds to bring home the body of Katie, a beautiful young woman and British citizen, who died by suicide at the weekend in Sydney, Australia. Katie's family are utterly distraught and just wants to get her back to lay her to rest. Any help you can give would be so appreciated by Katie's family. Her family would like to also donate funds to the Samaritans. Every seven seconds they respond to a call for help.

Katie was a daughter, a sister, an auntie, and a friend - with a cheeky sense of humour, a determined nature and a twinkle in her eye.

On Sunday 8th January 2023, Sue, Katie's mum had a knock on her door, a knock that is every mother’s worst nightmare. She was told her daughter Katie’s body had been found by the police, she died by suicide. Sue later that day called me heartbroken and devastated.

I’m Charlie, an old friend of Katie’s, we used to run together as part of a running club in Sheffield as children. She was my best friend back then and our all-girls running group was like a family. We were so tight-knit, we shared everything, our ups, winning races and smashing personal bests, and our downs, pushing ourselves in training and the pressures our coach put on us.

What Katie and I didn’t share, as did none of us at the time, is the sexual abuse we were suffering at the same time, at the hands of our coach.

Our coach preyed on us, he manipulated us, and he got in our heads. He created friction in the group, fear and pitted us against each other, all to make sure nobody told anybody what was going on. We were just children.

She was incredibly courageous, strong and so brave to stand up in court and testify against him. Paul North got 10 years in prison. Katie saved so many other children from being sexually abused by this abhorrent rapist. We know there were girls abused before us but Katie made sure there were none after us.

This is not about him but it is about the long-term trauma sexual abuse causes. Katie tried to start a new life in Australia, coping the best way she could and fighting every step of the way, she was an incredible and dedicated athlete. Katie achieved an elite level in Muay Thai, CrossFit and yoga through adversity. The thing about the trauma of sexual abuse, it doesn’t just go away. What happened to Katie made her feel worthless like she wasn’t enough, and it impacted her mental health, as is common for all survivors, me including.

Her family was trying to get Katie to come home to the UK as of late. For Katie the pain was just too much, her mental health deteriorated and she devastatingly took her own life.

Please help us, finally get Katie home, to be with her mum. Katie’s body is currently in Sydney, she is alone, we are raising funds to get Katie repatriated to the UK so her mum can lay her to rest and give her the peace she so desperately sought.

Katie deserved so much better. We want to do everything to honour Katie the way she deserves, to speak her name, live her legacy to continue to help other survivors of abuse, and for Katie to be grieved and celebrated. To show Katie she was and is loved.

We made a documentary for the BBC in 2021 called Nowhere to Run: Abused by Our Coach, to share our story to make change and prevent this from happening to others.

Please help us bring Katie home.