After her friend, Rockhampton mother of three Karen Gilliland, died in horrific circumstances, Melissa Swinson resolved to honour her memory by ensuring a story she wrote was made into a book, as the two had planned.
After her friend died in horrific circumstances, Melissa Swinson remembers feeling "useless and hopeless", unable to engage with the expected outpouring of grief in social media circles.
"We lost Karen in a very tragic and unexpected way and I felt very useless and hopeless," Ms Swinson said of how the publication came about.Amid the outpourings of grief and social media tributes after Ms Gilliland's death, Ms Swinson said she felt she needed to do more.She searched for a charity to raise funds in her friend's name and came across The Broken Ballerina Foundation, which seeks to help victims of domestic violence.
"A lot of them didn't even know we had made this book, and everyone was amazed and impressed, and it was like, 'Are you going to get this published?' "The two initially collaborated on the book a couple of years ago, when Ms Swinson discovered Ms Gilliland's love of creative writing and asked to provide illustrations as a means of practising her art.
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