“We became friends first, and one thing led to another … we were married in 2003,” Doug says. 

“We were married in 2005!” Bec laughs. 

Doug, a NSW Police Officer of 15 years, and Bec, a primary school teacher, are sitting side

He’d done a few afternoon shifts in a row, and I felt like we hadn’t really seen each other all week. I had all this information that I needed to tell him; I was in organisation mode and had to check

My partner’s shifts are all over the place, and it’s very difficult to manage from a social perspective. 

It can feel quite isolating. You find that the close network that you had before the police force and the shift work,

I’m a retired police officer, and I run art classes for first responders and military personnel. The story of how I came to do this probably isn’t what you think.

I joined the police force in 1997, and I absolutely

I’m the partner of a first responder, and I talk openly about the fact that it can be hard. I like to share the good bits too, but it’s the difficult parts that we tend to keep to ourselves –