After life as a boy soldier in South Sudan, Ayik Chut found himself a refugee in Toowoomba.

As a boy living in the Dinka tribe in what is now South Sudan, Ayik Chut Deng was a member of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). During his time as a child soldier, he witnessed unspeakable violence and was regularly tortured by older boys. At age nineteen, he and his family escaped the conflict in Sudan and resettled in Toowoomba, Australia.

Adjusting to his new life in small-town Queensland was difficult. He was suffering from PTSD that was misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, leading to years of erratic behaviour on the wrong medication. He found himself in trouble with the law before he came to the painful realisation that his behaviour was putting his life, as well as the lives of his loved ones, at risk.

As an adult now living in Brisbane, Ayik is a father, working as an actor and volunteering at his local youth centre. The Lost Boy is an honest and revealing account of overcoming a childhood filled with torture and war one man’s story of how he got to where he is today.