She bravely fought off a vicious thug who tried to rape her.

Now Erika Leadbeater has showed her courage again - waiving her anonymity as a sex attack victim to raise cash to help others.

Erika, 22, has had her head shaved in aid of The Survivors Trust.

And she is adamant that it is right that victims of crimes have a voice.

Artist Erika, of Brighouse, was attacked while she was studying at Nottingham Trent University in March 2014.

She said: “I had been to a yoga class at 7.30am in the morning and was on my way home when he grabbed me.

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“He grabbed me and dragged me away and I knew he was going to try and rape me.

“I was determined that was never going to happen and I fought him off. I hit him hard and then ran after him as he tried to get away.

“It turns out later this was a man who had twice killed people, once when he was only 17.

“He had also tried to attack a young girl just two days before he tried to attack me.

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“When he was in court, he pleaded guilty and he was jailed for seven years. People like that need treatment to stop them committing such crimes.

“Approximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men are raped in England and Wales alone every year; that’s roughly 11 rapes every hour.

“The attack opened my eyes to a world of crime I had been naive to, and I want to help those who have suffered more than I did”

Erika decided to help raise cash and awareness for The Survivors Trust, which is a national umbrella agency for over 135 specialist rape and sexual violence support organisations. The group aims to support and empower survivors of rape, sexual violence and/or childhood sexual abuse.

After the ordeal of her attack, she underwent counselling and says that helped her enormously.

“For a long time I have wanted to help other survivors.

“One of my friends was attacked and there are others who do not have a voice. It is a huge problem.

“The headshave idea was something I had had for a while and I finally decided to go ahead with it and raise money for the charity”.

Erika has set up a social media appeal to raise money for the charity and has already topped the £1,800 mark.

People can support her via www.justgiving.co,/ErikaLeadbeater