in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, last April.

They told him this was what he got for demanding freedom. Another officer abused him every day. For six months he suffered this abuse.When images appeared on television this week of prisoners walking free in Damascus, René was carried back to images of his own.

"I'm not in prison now, I'm here. But I saw myself in the photos and the images of the people in Syria. I was so happy for them, but I saw myself there... I saw the old version of me there. I saw when they raped me, and when they tortured me. I saw everything in flashback."He is weeping and we stop the interview. A few minutes, he says.I look at his sitting room wall.

There is a photo of his ruined home in Syria, one of René running in a marathon in Utrecht. Then an image of the Jesuit priest, Father Frans Van Der Lugt, 75, a psychotherapist and ecumenical activist in Syria, until he was assassinated in 2014.It was Father Van Der Lugt who told René - struggling in a deeply conservative environment - that he was a normal human being, that Jesus loved him whatever his sexual orientation was.

René takes a glass of water, then asks to continue our conversation.

Why has he agreed to show his face in front of a camera now, I wondered?"I had to have three drains in for a week and a half following my surgery and the bras even had space to facilitate these," she said.

"They are great and I am really glad all women will now be provided with two."Cyril Barrett, chair of the 5/344 Transport and General Workers Union Benevolent Fund, said the donation was the latest in a long line.

"We have been supporting breast care services at New Cross since the late 80s and are very proud to do so," he said.A hospice has launched a scheme to collect and recycle Christmas trees in exchange for a donation.