Peter Greste was confused, disorientated, and terrified.
It was just before Christmas 2013, and the Australian journalist had been thrown in solitary confinement in an Egyptian prison.
Then, he heard something he will never forget.
"I heard this voice calling my name in a very heavy accent of English, but saying to me, 'It's okay, you're with friends here. This is a political prison where there's a collection of human rights activists, pro-democracy activists, judges, and now you, a journalist and it's okay. We'll look after you.'
"And that was hugely important, I can't begin to tell you what that meant to me at that time."
The voice belonged to Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Egypt's most high-profile and influential political prisoner.
That moment was the start of a friendship Greste credits with helping him through the darkest of times during his 400 days of incarceration in Cairo.
And it is the reason the Australian is now on a 21-day hunger strike in London.
"I've joined a hunger strike with Alaa's mother, Laila Soueif, because I believe that I need to do what I can to help Alaa get out of prison," he said.
"I quite literally owe him my life.
"I met him when I was really struggling with what was going on … but he helped me understand, and he gave me the psychological tools and the political tools that helped me survive it."
Mother's hunger strike passes 100 days
Abd el-Fattah, 43, a software developer and blogger who rose to prominence as an activist in the 2011 Arab Spring, was jailed in 2019 for five years in Egypt over a social media post.
That sentence followed several previous spells in prison, including before and after the uprising.
The father of one was due to be released on September 29, but has not been freed.
Since September 30, his British-born mother mathematician and pro-democracy activist, Laila Soueif, has been on a hunger strike to try to raise awareness about her son's plight.
It has been 118 days since she began.
She has been surviving on water, rehydration salts, and sugarless tea and coffee.
Dr Soueif has also been holding a vigil in front of 10 Downing Street for an hour every day, hoping to secure a meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
"I'm going to be on hunger strike either until Alaa is released or I collapse," she told the ABC.
"This government assures me that [Alaa's case] is a high priority and that they're pushing it as hard as they can, but so far, there has been absolutely no concrete results."
Both Sir Keir and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy have raised Abd el-Fattah's case with their Egyptian counterparts a number of times, the UK Foreign Office said.
"We continue to press on his case at the highest levels of the Egyptian government," a spokesperson said.
"Officials from the Foreign Office continue to call for consular access to Mr El-Fattah and for his release."
Mr Lammy was in Cairo for meetings on Thursday and the Foreign Office said he raised the issue once more.
Governments urged to do more
Before he was detained in 2013, Greste, an award-winning foreign correspondent, had arrived in Egypt to cover shifts over Christmas for his colleague at Al Jazeera English.
Two weeks into his assignment, he was arrested alongside his colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy on charges including spreading false news and aiding terrorists.
After a trial that was widely denounced as politically motivated, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Following intense international pressure, including from the Australian government, the Egyptian president ordered his release, and he was deported on February 1, 2015.
Next week, it will be 10 years since he was freed.
Now a professor of journalism at Macquarie University and the executive director for the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom, Greste says the UK needs to do more to help Abd el-Fattah.
"More means using economic sanctions, economic pressure, more diplomatic pressure, bringing in other countries to support the case," he told the ABC.
"There's a whole host of tools, diplomatic and economic, that the British government does have that they could be using."
He also urged other governments to take notice.
"The Australian government has very little direct leverage, but they've got enormous amounts of credibility and authority, particularly because of my experience in Egypt, and so I'd urge the Australian government to speak up about this," he said.
Greste said he was nervous about lasting the whole 21 days of his planned hunger strike, but drew inspiration from Abd el-Fattah's mother.
"When I see how tough she is, then it gives me enormous strength and confidence that I can stick it out as well," he said.
Dr Soueif said she was "extremely touched and grateful" that the Australian journalist and campaigner had joined her.
"Peter has come from the other side of the world, and with the added punishment of coming from the Australian summer to this freezing British weather," she said.
"I'm really touched, and I'm touched by all the forms of solidarity I have seen since I started this."
