I’ve been vegan for five years now and it’s actually all down to my boyfriend, Jason. He had turned vegetarian about six months before my own awakening, after watching various graphic videos showing the inhumane treatment of farmed animals. Following his transition, I watched a fair few, and they all just brought me to tears! Not long after then, I distinctly remember cooking steak for myself at home whilst Jason was there — he was eating something from Quorn (at the time one of the only options in the supermarket) and suddenly, the steak just smelt like cooked flesh and I couldn’t eat it. It was like a lightbulb had been turned on and it was so obviously a dead animal on my plate.
I’m definitely a big believer in voting with my wallet, so I just thought, ‘I’m no longer going to buy or eat meat, because I don’t agree with killing animals and I definitely couldn’t kill any myself’. It actually coincided with New Year, so on January 1st 2013, I went vegetarian and two (ish) years later, Jason and I both became vegan.