Kristin Dunne is the co-founder and deputy chair of the Sophie Elliott Foundation.

Kristin Dunne said it was the interventions of her sister, parents and best friends that "potentially saved my life" from an abusive relationship.

Dunne shared her story of domestic violence at an event in Tauranga on Thursday night.

The co-founder and deputy chair of the Sophie Elliott Foundation, Dunne has sought to prevent violence against women, after being a victim at the hands of her then partner, broadcaster Tony Veitch.

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF Broadcaster Tony Veitch pleaded guilty in 2009, to injuring Kristin Dunne.

"People in an abusive relationship will often display low self-esteem. Then they get depressed, withdrawn and guarded, particularly when discussing their partner," Dunne said.

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"There may be physical marks and bruises, which they try to hide and repeated injuries with multiples of excuses as to how they occurred.

"These are the symptoms my family recognised in me."

Dunne said it can be "incredibly hard when first confronted by someone as to whether you are OK".

"You are doing all that you can to appear normal and it feels like an intrusion of a very private world to have someone say, hey, what's going on here? But it is a life-saving thing to do."

A police statement filed by Dunne, revealed a catalogue of abuse, including an incident in 2006, where Veitch kicked Dunne with enough force to fracture her back.

In 2009, Veitch pleaded guilty to injuring Dunne.

Through the highly-publicised case, she met Lesley Elliott, the mother of Sophie Elliott, who was stabbed to death by her boyfriend Clayton Weatherston, in 2008.

The pair then realised there was a gap in the area of domestic violence prevention and, with a drive to see change begin, co-founded the foundation.

"Unbeknownst to Sophie and her family, she was also in an abusive dating relationship. And as her incredibly brave mother has stood up and said, over 350 times since her murder, her death was preventable," Dunne said.

"In all the cases I have named, many people knew that something was wrong in the relationship. But they didn't know that was abuse and they didn't know what to do about it. It wasn't their fault, they were never made aware, never educated. Who teaches you this stuff? I was also unaware.

"It was the interventions of my sister, of my parents, and my best friends, that potentially saved my life."

Dunne told the crowd of around 200 people, that she was blessed "to not be one of New Zealand's statistics".

"Imagine knowing that you could do something to save the life of your beloved child," she said.

"Or the life of your niece, your friend, your aunty, your work colleague, your mother.

"And there is something that we can do, there is something that we can all do. And what we can do is understand what love is and what love is not, and what abuse is and what to do when we encounter it. And what we must all do is intervene, safely."

Abuse is like a spiderweb, spun meticulously and deliberately around you and snaring you before you realise, Dunne said.

"Often it is really hard for a person to see a pattern and realise they are in an abusive relationship.

"She may not recognise that she is in an abusive situation and that is what you can help her to understand."

Dunne was on of three speakers at the Indulge Speaker Collective at the Baycourt Community & Arts Centre.

Celebrity chef Al Brown and Director and Co-Founder of Heilala Vanilla, Jennifer Boggiss, also spoke.