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Wednesday 29 Oct 2014

Press Release

Return of the Angel of Mostar

More than 15 years after she risked her life to save hundreds of Bosnian children, the "Angel of Mostar" Sally Becker has made an emotional return to the city torn apart by civil war. Her journey will be shown on Inside Out South, on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One, on Monday 31 January at 7.30pm.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ reporter Mark Norman followed Sally as she went back to Mostar for the first time since peace was declared in December 1995. Sally made the headlines for her efforts to evacuate hundreds of injured youngsters and their families from the besieged city; ensuring they received urgent and often life-saving treatment. Those she saved and worked with named her the "Angel of Mostar".

In this sometimes harrowing Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Inside Out film, "The Angel" is reunited with two of the children she saved, Lela (just seven days old when she was rescued) and Elmir (three years old when rescued) and their parents.

But the encounter is bittersweet as the family remember their eldest brother Damir who succumbed to his injuries before Sally could evacuate them. And while Sally is delighted to see old friends and explore the city she only ever knew as a war zone, she also has to confront her demons.

From the Brigadier who arranged the ceasefire so she could cross the front line, to the neurosurgeon who worked in the basement hospital in East Mostar throughout the siege, the respect and affection for Sally is obvious.

But it is as she revisits the hospital which she described as a "living hell" that the now mother of one reveals her enduring memory; the children she couldn't save and in particular a little girl called Medina.

Speaking in the film Sally says: "I should have carried her across the front line – she might have got killed on the way out but she might not have and I feel completely responsible. I may have helped a lot of kids but I couldn't help her and that is who I remember the most."

You can see the story of The Return Of The Angel Of Mostar on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ South Inside Out, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One, on Monday 31 January at 7.30pm, or visit .

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