Kim Phúc Phan Thi, the “napalm girl”, now 56 years old, has received six honorary degrees and numerous international awards.

Speaking to a deeply affected audience at the Centre, she presented her book “Fire Road”, in which she tells how she managed to survive the scars that remained on her skin and deep in her heart, and “to overcome her hatred of those who had stolen her happy childhood”.

During the two hours she spent with us, she retraced the story of her life, from her childhood in the village of Trang Bang (South Vietnam) to the day when, badly burned in a napalm attack, she was taken to the hospital in Saigon. There she was treated for fourteen months and eventually discharged after seventeen operations. She has since lived in Cuba, Canada and the USA.