“Blows to the head, thrown from moving cars, strangled – it’s depressingly common”

It started, as with many modern love stories, with a swipe.

In 2015, Paul van Donkelaar, a recently divorced neuroscience professor, met Karen Mason, a woman working with survivors of intimate partner violence.

They started dating and fell in love. To begin with, they were just another couple who happened to have found their happily ever after through online dating. But it soon became clear that there were bigger forces at play.

“We’re definitely unique,” says Karen, who is executive director of Kelowna Women’s Shelter in British Columbia, Canada.