Bravery award revoked from a man who bashed a woman, left her blind in one eye and killed her unborn child

Jeannie Blackburn has just heard news that the Royal Humane Society has revoked the bravery award given to the man convicted of serial and vicious assaults against her -- and it's thanks to Change.org users.

Here's Jeannie telling this incredible story in her own words:

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I felt like crying all over again, but this time for a very different reason.

Last night the Royal Humane Society emailed me to say that they had revoked the bravery award they gave to the man who bashed me, left me blind in one eye, and killed my unborn child.

For years, I've been reliving what he did to me. And the bravery award just made it all so much worse. He made my life a living hell, leaving me permanently disabled -- and yet society was holding him up as a hero.

But that all started to change when I saw Melinda Liszewski's Change.org petition. Suddenly it felt like people were on my side again, standing with me against what he did. Knowing more than 18,000 people signed Melinda’s petition gave me the courage to publicly speak out.

So yesterday I delivered the 18,961 petition signatures to Melbourne Mayor Robert Doyle (also a Vice President of the Royal Humane Society). I did interviews about the petition on the nightly news for Channel 10, Channel 7, Channel 9 and ABC. I was interviewed on 3AW, and the campaign was covered in the Herald Sun, the Daily Telegraph, the Australian and in lots of other places.

For me this was never about just one award. It was about sending a bigger public message that brave men don’t bash women and that as a community there must be zero tolerance for anyone who commits such a vile act.

Thanks to this petition, the Royal Humane Society has finally agreed with me. After all of the media coverage yesterday they convened a crisis meeting and voted unanimously to strip him of the award.

By starting this petition on Change.org, Melinda stood up and spoke out when I couldn't find the strength to. And I can't thank her enough. This morning, we're both sharing the news with our friends and family, and you can do the same by sharing this news piece about our victory on Facebook.

With my deepest thanks,

Jeannie Blackburn.

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Change.org is a place where anyone can start a campaign to make a positive change. If you want to build support for an issue that matters to you, you can start your own petition on Change.org by clicking here -- it takes about 2 minutes.

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