Kintsugi Heroes
Danni Petkovic · 72 min
After losing her younger brother to a brain tumour and confronting decades of debilitating death phobia, Danni Petkovic transformed her grief into a calling — becoming an end-of-life doula, death literacy advocate, and national campaign manager who is changing the way Australians talk about dying.
If this story feels close to home
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
When Danni Petkovic's younger brother Shane died of a brain tumour three years ago, something shifted. Unlike the six other deaths she had witnessed in her family since age 19, Shane's illness brought end-of-life carers who asked the hard questions: where did he want to die, what would happen to his body, what did he want his three teenage children to know about him. Those questions, uncomfortable as they were, opened a door. They let the family talk about death as something real and meaningful rather than something to avoid. For Danni, a former police officer who had spent decades battling intense death phobia, it was a turning point that led her to deliberately leave her career and retrain as an end-of-life doula.
Now Danni supports families and individuals planning their end of life, and manages Dying to Know Day, a national campaign to shift how Australians talk about death. Her work centres on a simple truth: people want to have these conversations, but they do not know how to start them or feel allowed to say the words. Without planning, families face conflict over resuscitation and burial when grief is already overwhelming. With planning, they follow someone's actual wishes. Danni helps people record messages for their children's 21st birthdays and weddings they will not attend, write emotional wills, and make advance care plans. She sits with the dying and with the grieving, offering continuity that doctors and hospitals cannot. Her grief has not disappeared, but she has learned to live with it, and in doing so, she has found her purpose.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
Every story here belongs to the person who lived it. They said yes to sharing it, and we sat with it carefully before it went up. Nothing here is exaggerated and nothing is used without permission. Read how we handle these stories ↗
Kintsugi Heroes · Registered Australian not-for-profit · kintsugiheroes.com.au ↗