Sissy Austin was attacked while running. Now she wants to help women and gender-diverse people take back the track

‘Even putting my runners back on for the first time … the thoughts in my head were really negative,’ says Sissy Austin, who survived an attack while she was running in bushland. Photograph: Steve Womersley/The Guardian

For months after Sissy Austin was violently attacked in the Lal Lal state forest north-west of Melbourne, flies were her biggest trigger. “I was covered in blood, it was a hot day, and I blamed the flies for not being able to find my way back to the car,” the Gunditjmara, Keeraay Woorroong and Djab Wurrung woman says.

“When I started running again and I saw a fly, I had to stop. It was crippling.”