Like many other single 28-year-old women, Dr. Angela Jay used the dating app, Tinder to help her in her search for love.
Being a busy trainee obstetric gynecologist, she had little time for the traditional means of meeting a partner. When she met Paul Lambert, he seemed charming at first.
They went on a few dates that eventually turned into a six-week relationship. Gradually, Lambert became more and more obsessed with Dr. Jay to the point where she felt "smothered."
She ended their six-week relationship, but Lambert refused to accept that it was over. His obsession escalated and he began to stalk her intensely.
It got to the point where he showed up on her doorstep and stole her house keys. Even though she notified the police and changed her locks, he refused to give up harassing her.
Then, one day last year, he broke into her house and the most terrifying hour of her life began to unfold...
A woman's home should be a safe place, the one space in her life where no harm can come to her. But when Lambert broke into her house, he took away that sacred space.
As she was turning the corner, completely unguarded, she found herself face to face with a nightmare.
She remembers the horrifying moments well:
"As I was turning the corner to enter my bedroom, he jumped out at me and I screamed and he put his hand around my mouth so that I couldn't scream."
She tells The New York Times, "...[he] looked me in the eye with a really intense look and said 'It's OK, I just want to talk.' "
Then she looked down and saw the blood.
As she stood there in shock and surprise, he stabbed her 11 times in the legs and hips. Jay tells the New York Times that she didn't even know it was happening until she looked down and saw the blood on the floor.
"I didn't actually feel him stabbing me but I could see the blood when I looked down and I just thought in my head, "˜Oh my god, he's actually stabbing me. He's actually going to kill me.'"
He doused her in gas and which made his grip on her slip. She screamed and was able to slide out from his grasp.
A neighbor, Steve Willdern, heard her and burst through the door wielding a steel bar. Willdern managed to dress her wounds to control the blood before she was taken to hospital.
Lambert fled the scene and was shot and killed by the police two hours later.
Even though she no longer has anything to fear with her attacker dead, she still checks her cupboards and under the bed for intruders. She still has nightmares of the ordeal.
In spite of the suffering she still sometimes endures, Dr. Jay has dedicated herself to sharing her "darkest moments" with the world.
She tells the Sydney Morning Herald that she intends to raise $100,000 for domestic violence victims by walking more than 65 kilometers in five days.
"With most of the stab wounds in my legs and hip, this will be both a physically and mentally challenging event for me," Dr Jay said. She hoped people would see the "true message about the significance of domestic violence".
"If telling my story gives even one person the strength to ask for help "” I've achieved something."
