From navigating her young life as a Yugoslavian refugee in Australia to enduring years of “brutal” physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her “toxic” father, it’s no secret that Jelena Dokic has overcome some extremely tough hurdles in her 42 years.
Yet, throughout even the darkest times, the former tennis star has shown a quiet resilience that has allowed her to not only rise above her own hardships, but to use those well-earned survival skills to help others in need.
“That’s what I would like to stand for, absolutely, with just speaking out and sharing my story,” Jelena tells Woman’s Day.
“This was always not about just surviving but thriving, giving people hope that they can go on no matter what you experience. It can be different to domestic violence and child abuse, it can be different to mental health struggles – which I’ve had – and all these different things that you can still get through, and you can thrive, and you can even reinvent yourself.
“But also, you can do it with kindness and grace and dignity and generosity and wanting to help people.”
TENNIS TO EMERGENCY
Jelena’s latest mission to give to others has taken her to the overflowing and understaffed emergency department at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, where she’s shadowed the frontline workers in her first real glimpse inside Australia’s buckling health system.
Her schedule was jam-packed when she got the call to take part in season two of The Hospital: In The Deep End, but she knew she had to make time for the meaningful and important project.
“I said yes straight away. I barely had time, but I said, ‘It doesn’t matter, I’m going to make it work,’” Jelena says. “So I had no days off for about seven weeks just to be able to film this. I really wanted to just experience it myself and show people what happens behind the scenes of our healthcare system, and the amazing healthcare workers and doctors and nurses, which I really feel like we don’t show enough.
“It really makes you believe in the good out there in people because they do this job that is so hard and they have so much passion for doing it. They give 1000 per cent and save lives and you just want to give them more of what they need. We should be able to give these incredible heroes so much more.”
RISING ABOVE
Given her own history of abuse from her late father Damir, and the years of public scrutiny and mental illness that followed, Jelena was aware that the intense, high-pressure environment of the ER could bring back traumatic memories.
“I was prepared to be there to help, but yeah, I knew it would be a possibility that I would be triggered,” she admits. “The DV part of it, of actually seeing victims come through the ER and then going on to work with social workers – things like that, I knew it would bring up emotions, but that’s OK. It’s something that I was willing to go through and take on, no problem, just in order for us to be able to show and help and do something else. That was the whole point.”
The Hospital: In The Deep End, Thursdays from March 5, SBS & SBS On Demand
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