Our guest today is nursing educator Ashton Klein.

Ashton and his younger brother Grant grew up in a violent household in regional Victoria

until his mother found the means to take them away.

Months later, Ashton's father murdered his mother in a brutal arson attack.

At just 15, Ashton and Grant were left alone in the world, and ever since then, they've

managed Grant's complex health needs together.

Ashton joins us on Australian True Crime to talk about the loss of his mum and the effect

it's had on every aspect of his life.

This is Australian True Crime.

We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land

on which this podcast is created,

the Wurundri Woi Warang people of the Koolan Nation.

And a warning, this episode of the podcast

contains graphic descriptions of violence.

I was overjoyed at the thought of having someone to mentor, someone to share life's experiences with

and to just have someone by my side. You know, it was an absolutely extraordinary gift that I was given to have Grant come into my life.

One of the things with kidney disease is when you're born with kidney disease, the adrenal glands that secrete growth hormone sit on top of the kidneys.

And so children who are born with

renal disease have growth and development issues and they're going to have a stunted growth essentially.

And so Grant is 32 years old and his height is about 140. I talk sometimes about my earliest memories of domestic violence and some of the, some of the

memories that I've got of being a four to six year old.

And for me, a lot of those are around listening to or listening out for we lived on an orchard.

...