Running and visualisation helped Wayne Curran overcome the horrifying experience of being sexually abused while in foster care and group homes from age six to 14. Login or signup to continue reading This eight-year ordeal followed him being subjected to violence, abuse and torture in early childhood. "By the time I was six, I was removed from my mother's care," said Wayne, now 47.
His mother's boyfriend was charged and sent to prison for six years for sexual and physical abuse. Wayne then stayed in various foster and group homes in Western Sydney and the Southern Highlands. "It was soul destroying, torturous and never-ending," he said, referring to the abuse.
"I was forced to do sexual acts on a worker at a group home. And I was also repeatedly sexually abused at other places I stayed." Wayne is currently on an epic 494-kilometre run from Kempsey Court House to Sydney Opera House with Pat Farmer.
The eight-day run will take in Bulahdelah on Monday and Raymond Terrace on Tuesday. Titled Wayne's Run: A Journey of Hope for Foster Care, it aims to raise awareness of the plight of children in foster care and the lack of support for carers. Wayne's ordeal led him to become sad, angry and violent.
He abused alcohol to ease negative thoughts, hate and shame. "I would binge drink when something triggered me," he said. His violent outbursts landed him in and out of NSW prisons 34 times, amounting to 17 years in jail across a 24-year period.
He mostly did time in minimum security for as.
