At one stage, it looked as though Lisa Curry's eldest daughter Jaimi might follow in her mother's Olympian footsteps.

"She was actually a really good swimmer. She came fourth in the country for her age [at 15] after only five months of training. But the kids at school bullied her. They said she had muscles and she looked like a boy. Everything they said to me when I was younger," Curry told No Filter in 2022.

"It's interesting because you can say the same thing to someone different — someone takes it personally and someone can just brush it off and keep going. And that's the thing with Jaimi. She took everything to heart. She was such a sensitive, fragile girl."

Jaimi died in September 2020 after complications with an eating disorder and alcohol addiction.

She was 33 years old.

Now, Lisa has spoken about another concern she had about her daughter before her death.

One she is still trying to make sense of six years later.

Listen to Mia Freedman's full interview with Lisa Curry on the No Filter podcast below. Post continues after audio.

Speaking on the Healthy Her podcast, Lisa said she suspects her daughter may have been subjected to violence before her death.

"She sent me every photo. We had this thing going where she had sent me a photo of a little flower growing out of the concrete or she'd send me a beautiful door or her breakfast or herself covered in bruises," she said.

"I mean I've got photos on my phone where a couple of times I've looked at them and I'm thinking, 'hang on a minute, what happened here?' Because to me, it looks like someone has bashed her.

"And I'm not quite 100 per cent sure that that didn't happen. Because of the photos on my phone."

Lisa says Jaimi would say the bruises were from bumping into a door or falling over but Lisa says she's not convinced that was the case.

"I knew some of the really dodgy people that were around her and now when I look at the photos I think, 'You don't get a black eye from [bumping into something like that]'," she said.

"I'm still trying to understand … and it's really hard."

It wasn't just those concerning photos. Lisa, Jaimi and the rest of their family navigated Jaimi's health challenges for 18 years.

"We had to find a way that we could all keep moving forward as a family. Keep turning up for work, keep trying to stay positive, trying to stay strong for the other kids," Lisa recalled. "With all the ups and downs and hospital visits."

Jaimi's death came after a years-long battle with an eating disorder and alcohol addiction.

It was while Jaimi was training for swimming that one of the swim coaches said something about her weight.

"He said maybe she could lose a few kilos," Curry recounted on No Filter in 2022. "I'm thinking, 'What? What do you mean? She's 15. How can you say that?'"

Not long after that, Jaimi gave up swimming and took up outrigger canoeing.

"The coach was weighing these 16-year-old kids every session. Again, I was like, 'What are you doing?' And she'd come home and say, 'Mum, I put on 200 grams'," Curry said.

"People listening to me now [on this podcast] who have children struggling with their eating will understand exactly what I'm saying. People who have never experienced it will be thinking, 'Oh, that's what it's like'.

"You can have a child who opens the fridge and inhales everything and then they disappear. And we didn't think anything of it because we had a big house; everyone disappears and does their own thing. But we didn't realise that inhaling all this food and then disappearing was a sign of bulimia, of course."

It was only when Jaimi admitted the shower was blocked because of her vomiting that Curry understood.

"This is me being really honest because people need to hear these stories," she said. "And Jaimi would tell these stories, Jamie was very open. She really was.

"She said, 'Mum, you need to call a plumber'. I said, why? And she said, 'Because I blocked up the shower, all the plumbing'. And I said, 'How did you do that?' And she said, 'I've been vomiting'.

"Then the plumber came and she told him, 'I've got an eating disorder and I'm sorry', and he said, 'I understand, my daughter's going through the same thing'. And this plumber was amazing. But he was a stranger in our house. And she was just completely open with him."

That was the first time Curry had heard her daughter talking about having an eating disorder. She was 16.

Back then, Curry didn't know much about bulimia.

"It was almost shameful in those days. You don't talk about it. You don't talk about your kid having an eating disorder," she admitted.

"But nowadays, we do talk about it, and we need to talk about it. Because there's probably a reason why people are bulimic or anorexic. But we don't have the answers. And if I had the answers, I would be screaming it to the world.

"I have so many people on social media who contact me saying their child 'is going through the same thing, can you help me?' And I say to them, I really wish I could help you. But I don't have the answers, I'm still stuck. And I said, the best thing you can do is just love them. Spend as much time with them as you can, do the things that they love doing, and support them through the hard times because you don't know when it's going to be their last day."

Watch: Lisa Curry's heartbreaking interview about Jaimi's death. Post continues after video.

In Curry's experience, she believes there is a gap in the system that needs to be resolved.

"The problem with addictions and disordered eating and people with mental health issues is that sometimes they are too sick for rehab. But they're not sick enough to stay in hospital. So there's nowhere for them to go. And that's where Jami was," she said.

"We had everyone trying to help. There's a hole in the system, and somehow, someway, we have to address this and find a place where people who have nowhere to go can go and find the help that they need."

In Curry's memoir Lisa, she discussed the impact bingeing and purging had on the whole family. Oftentimes, Jaimi would openly order three meals at restaurants — essentially binge-eating in front of everyone.

"And there was nothing we could do about it. We would talk to the doctors and they would say, 'It's not about the food, don't talk about the food', and we'd say 'What the bloody hell is it about then if it’s not about the food?' But they couldn't give us answers," Curry told Freedman.

"And then when she was 18, there was confidentiality. You can't talk to the doctor about what's going on with your child, which just drove us mad."

The family tried several options to see if anything would help. Jaimi went to live with Curry's mother [who passed away in April 2022] for a while. She lived in a unit on her own for a while. She was in rehab for a while. She lived with her father, Curry's ex-husband Grant Kenny, for a while.

"So one night, it turned into World War 3 because I ordered all the meals for everyone before she arrived [at the restaurant for dinner]. And there was one meal for everyone because I know what everyone likes to eat. And when she wanted to order, I said, 'No, no, I’ve already ordered'. It turned into a screaming match. Because she wanted more. And I said 'No, no, this is enough. It's enough'."

That feeling of helplessness lingered with Curry.

"So you try, you try everything. But it's like, I don't know. I still, every single day, I shake my head. What did we miss? What didn't we do? We did try everything," she says, breaking down into tears.

"As a parent, it's your worst nightmare. And you wonder... Grant and I still say to each other, 'What did we miss?' Was there something else I could have done? Was there something else earlier? Because all our kids were all brought up the same, everything was exactly the same.

"But why do you get one child who struggles? And not only struggles but gets everything [happen to her]. In her later days, she did go to an eating rehab place in Geelong. And while she was there, her boyfriend died... so what more could the kid have, you know, pile on top of her?

"It was just this never-ending hole she was in. Everything was being piled on top of her. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't find a way out. As a parent, it's awful to watch a child suffer."

Jaimi passed away six years ago now and Lisa says it's taken her "all that time to be able to see the light".

"I can talk about it if I want to bring it up but when I hear someone else talk about it, it's just like a dagger to the heart," Lisa said on the Healthy Her podcast.

Lisa added that, due to the nature of her health, "we never knew when the last day was going to be and that's the hardest part".

"So for people who have family members who may not have long to go or you just never know," she added.

"I don't have the answers. If I did, I'd scream them out loud but what I can say it, just spend simple time with them. Hold their hand, stroke their head, go have an ice cream in the park, sit under the sun, marvel at the birds and the trees and the ocean and just do the really simple things."

"Just stroke their head and tell them that you love them, that they matter," she added.

And while it hurts, Lisa says she believes "every loss is a lesson of some sort" and she's trying to learn how to apply those lessons to her life.

"I've tried really hard to work out why I'm feeling the way that I'm feeling. What does it mean? Where's it come from? How can I pass it on to other people in a more positive way? How can I help people get through it?" she said.

This article was first published in 2022, written by Adrienne Tam, and has since been updated.

If you or anyone you know needs support for eating disorders, please contact the Butterfly Foundation National Support Line and online service 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) or email support@thebutterflyfoundation.org.au .

Feature image: Instagram/ @lisacurry.