THE story of how Liliane Umubyeyi has gone from hanging from an avocado tree while her relatives were being butchered to receiving a degree tomorrow from Oxford Brookes University is beyond inspiring.

Miss Umubyeyi has done well even to be alive, let alone building the life she has in a foreign country she arrived in destitute and unable to speak the language.

As we report today, Miss Umubyeyi, a Tutsi, survived the Rwandan genocide of 1994. That included cowering in that tree as members of her family were killed.

But even then the horrors were far from over. Captured, raped, imprisoned and then to also see her mother beaten to death was to come before she managed to flee here.

She ended up in a hostel in Oxford and from there has created a life that includes her two young daughters and graduating from Brookes with a degree in international relations and politics.

We can all empathsise (or believe that we can) with Miss Umubyeyi.

Yet, take a step back and just try to imagine – properly – what would have happened if you were faced with even one of these situations. Could you have coped? Would your instinct to survive and prosper overcome the trauma you had suffered?

It is almost impossible to put adequately into words just what reserves of strength Miss Umubyeyi has drawn on or to express our respect for her.

And as much as she richly deserves every ounce of praise she receives, there should also be a nod to those people in Oxford who have helped her.

Immigration and asylum seekers can, all too often, be seen as a divisive issue, but surely no one who wants a decent and tolerant society they can be proud of would argue against this country extending its hand of comfort, freedom and safety to those like Miss Umubyeyi who, in their hour of most desperate need, reach out for it.