"It was a turning point for me. It meant someone believed in me."
Kathy was the victim of a domestic violence shooting at her home in Queensland 12 years ago. She was shot through the hip and needed major surgery but she has been left with the lasting impacts of the injury.
She was left in financial and emotional disarray after the traumatic incident and was unable to afford essential items like menstrual products.
"I was so demoralised and traumatised after years and years of domestic violence and I felt so powerless," Kathy told 9news.com.au.
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But one day she received an "It's in the Bag" handbag from Share the Dignity, a charity aiming to end period poverty, which contained necessary hygiene and menstrual products.
"To me, that handbag was a statement of empowerment," she said.
"We got to choose our own handbags. When you're given something it's nice, but we were given a choice and for us even choosing a handbag that was unconditionally given was a beautiful gift.
"It had products we needed but the idea of choice, of empowerment.
"I'd never had a handbag and it was the most beautiful gift."
When Kathy was shot, she was an apprentice baker and 12 years later she now works as a baker full-time with Woolworths.
"I've made it to where I thought I would never be," she said.
For domestic violence survivors like Kathy, their financial situation can mean buying products like pads and tampons isn't something they can afford.
Data shows one in five Aussie women have been forced to improvise on period products and 50 per cent admitted to wearing sanitary products for more than four hours because they didn't have enough to get by.
The startling statistics of Australian women facing period poverty weren't well known to Townsville Fire basketball player Lauren Nicholson.
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"Not enough people talk about it and it's something that when you have access or the funds you don't think about it too much," she told 9news.com.au.
"Now we're aware of the statistics and how many people don't have access it's eye-opening."
In light of the "alarming" statistics, the Cygnett Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) has partnered with the national charity Share the Dignity to raise awareness about period poverty in Australia.
Like Nicholson, the head of WNBL Christy Collier-Hill said the period poverty statistics were alarming and wasn't aware of how prevalent the issue is.
"I think in Australia it should never be an issue," she said.
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Collier-Hill said the partnership with Share the Dignity to raise awareness and funds is an important cause for the women's league.
"We're all women, we have periods, we get it and feel the same," she said.
"It is a part of life and our objective is to normalise conversations around periods."
Share the Dignity Founder and Managing Director Rochelle Courtenay said she hopes the themed round will raise more awareness about the crisis.
"I want to ensure there is not a single person in Australia who doesn't know period poverty exists. With the help of the WNBL, our voice will be amplified," she said.
To combat period poverty, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has pledged to introduce free period products in public places if he wins the election.
Andrews promised to install 1500 product dispensing vending machines in public places like train stations, hospitals and libraries.
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Round four of the WNBL will be the "Fighting Period Poverty Round" starting on November 30 until December 4.
Throughout the round, the WNBL will be holding a donation appeal to raise $25,000 for a vending machine that supplies period products.
Players will wear a "fighting period poverty" t-shirt during warmups and there will be period product donation boxes at all games during round four.
"We're doing as much as we can to have an impact on a serious issue in our society," Collier-Hill said.
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