Baroness (Caroline) Cox’s and Mendes’ friendship began immediately after her liberation in 2000. She helped Mende to find her feet in her new-found freedom in the UK.

In 1982, Baroness Cox founded a British Life Peer and was Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1985 to 2005. She is the founder and president of HART [Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust].

Her humanitarian work takes her to conflict and post-conflict zones, such as the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda and the Shan and Chin peoples of Burma. She also supports communities that have suffered from the conflicts in Indonesia and was instrumental in founding the International Islamic Christian Organisation for Reconciliation and Reconstruction (IICORR) with former President Abdurrhaman Wahid. She visited North Korea to promote parliamentary initiatives and medical programmes.

Her recent publications include Cox’s Book of Modern Saints and Martyrs (with Catherine Butcher); This Immoral Trade: Slavery in the 21st Century, with John Marks and The Very Stones Cry Out, The Persecuted Church: Pain, Passion and Praise, with Benedict Rogers.