SARAH Williams almost didn't live to share her story.
The sexual violence survivor, passionate advocate, and What Were You Wearing? Australia (WWYW) founder has been named Newcastle's Local Woman of the Year. But she was once so overcome with grief she wanted to take her own life.
As the stories of survivors began flooding in for Ms Williams's 2021 Newcastle exhibition, which showcased representations of outfits women wore when they were attacked - she knew she had to keep going.
"There needs to be someone out there being that voice for survivors, for the survivors that can't speak and those that will never get to speak," she said.
"I want this award to be a sense of hope for survivors, that although you can go through the worst of the worst stuff, you can come out the other end okay.
"You just have to fight it and get through what happened."
Her organisation raises awareness, provides education and is a lifeline to victims and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
It also runs community initiatives to keep women safe, offering drink spiking testing kits at clubs and hosting safe spaces at festivals for people who have experienced sexual violence.
Survivors can report their experiences anonymously online through the WWYW website, and Ms Williams said giving them a sense of justice is often the first step to healing.
"I pretty much remained silent about a lot of child sex abuse stuff up until I was about 19," she said.
"I wanted to speak out about it and show people that even if you don't speak yourself, if you want to anonymously report to our website, you can still have your voice.
"I wanted to be able to see justice not only for myself, but for everyone else. Time and time again unfortunately, we see people get away with these sorts of crimes."
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp presented the award on Tuesday, and said Ms Williams received several nominations.
"Sarah is a trailblazer, and I'm sure we will be hearing a lot more about her organisation WWYW as well as Sarah now and well into the future," he said.
"Sarah has had a huge impact on our community, WWYW has done an enormous amount for Newcastle, for the Hunter, for the state and for Australia in fact.
"She's very well known in our community for the stand she takes against sexual assault, domestic violence and the champion she is to support people and work against that."
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