'Her only concern is helping people: I am very proud of her'

'IT'S ALL right during the day. I have people to talk to. I don't worry about her then. ' It is at night that Sally Becker's mother starts to worry about her daughter ferrying supplies and refugee children through a war zone, writes Stephen Ward.

As most mothers would, Carol Radford lies awake in bed at her home in Hove, East Sussex, wondering whether Mostar is quiet or turbulent. 'She keeps telling me she's all right, but I can't get to sleep at nights,' she says.

But Mrs Radford knew better than to suggest her daughter should not go. Sally had been to Israel when she was 16, stayed four years and came to no harm. Since then she had spent more time away than at home. During the Gulf war she was in Jordan and Israel.

Earlier this year, Ms Becker was watching television at home and saw the suffering in Bosnia, her mother explained. After that there was no question of whether she should go to help, only the matter of how to get there. The Medjugorje Appeal, a Surrey-based Catholic charity, accepted her offer to help.

When she returned from her second aid convoy, the family GP, Dr Duncan Stewart, gave her a package of supplies for Mostar's hospital, and her mother believes that convinced her to stay there and not return with the convoy the next time. That was three months ago, and since then mother and daughter have spoken only by

telephone.

'She is absolutely neutral in the conflict out there. She says there are terrible things done on both sides. She is only concerned with helping people,' Mrs Radford said. 'I am very, very proud of her.'