When Sally Becker last met Selma, it was in the midst of the bloodshed, confusion and fear of attack of a brutal civil war.

Ms Becker, dubbed the Angel of Mostar after saving 170 wounded children from a Bosian orphanage, described the child she rescued as looking like “a small broken doll”.

The 47-year-old even said she feared the 10-year-old she would die from shrapnel injuries which led to her arm being amputated without anaesthetic.

But sixteen years on, the Peacehaven aid worker was invited to New York to watch Selma Handzar get married.

Ms Becker, who flew to the USA with her own 10-year-old daughter Billie, said: “When Selma walked into the room wearing a strapless ivory gown, I caught my breath. She looked like a Greek Goddess.”