A WOMAN who was left traumatised after being sexually assaulted abroad has started fundraising for the charity which helped her recover.

Brigitte Board, 24, wants to raise awareness about the risk of sexual assault while travelling and hopes to encourage other women who have been attacked to come forward and report it to police.

In December 2010 Miss Board, of Waldegrave Road, Bromley, was travelling with four female friends in Fiji when she was attacked while sleeping in a dormitory.

She said: “I remember it was about 5.50am. I woke up and one of the workers from the dorm was by my bed telling me to be quiet. I thought I might have dreamt it because I wasn’t properly awake.

“I sat up and asked ‘what have you done?’ He got some money out and tried to give it to me and apologised for touching me at which point I screamed.”

After returning to Bromley Miss Board struggled to cope with what had happened to her, and was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder when she took an overdose.

In hospital she was referred to Bromley Women’s Service [BWS], a voluntary specialist psychotherapy service for survivors of sexual abuse.

After months of counselling Miss Board is still coming to terms with what happened, but is keen to raise awareness about the risk of sexual assault while travelling and raise money for the service.

She said: “They were really amazing and they’re all volunteers. I just wanted to raise some money for them and give them support. They get a lot of people and they can’t always help them all.

“I’m a different person, I’ve really struggled to do things. He took a lot away from me. I wouldn’t say I’m back to where I was but BWS definitely helped.”

After Miss Board left Fiji her attacker retracted his guilty plea, but when she returned for his trial in October 2011 he changed it back again and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

She said: “The police said I was the first tourist to return. I don’t think the sentence really makes up for it but at least I went back.”

Now eighteen months after the attack Ms Board has raised around £3,000 for BWS and Rape Crisis UK, which campaigns to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual violence.