Edith Blais has spent many years travelling around the world, but could never have imagined that her adventures would result in her spending 450 days held captive by Al-Qaeda.

In December 2018, Edith was travelling in Burkina Faso when she was captured by an armed terrorist group, separated from her companion and brought hundreds of miles into the desert.

Throughout her time in captivity, Edith wrote poems using a pen gifted to her by another hostage, the poems have formed the basis of her book ‘The Weight of Sand’.

The book looks at her experiences of captivity, her incredible story of escaping and emerging into a world gripped by a Covid-19.

Speaking to Dermot and Dave, Edith shared some of her incredible stories, and explained how writing her book helped her to process the experience.

You can catch the chat by clicking play above.