Former Greek model Sandra Tsiligeridu spotted Syrian refugee Mohamed Besmar, exhausted while drifting in the Aegean for 13 hours. The ex-model and her friends pulled him onto their speed boat heading from Kos to the island of Pserimos, close to the Turkish border.

Besmar was on a dinghy making the perilous journey into the EU when one of the migrants on board dropped an oar into the water. He tried to retrieve it but was dragged away by strong currents. The other refugees threw him a life jacket as he disappeared into the night.

The photo of Tsiligeridu cradling Besmar was posted on Facebook, attracting praise from far and wide. “He was nearly unconscious when we found him,” wrote Tsiligeridu on her Facebook page. “He had sacrificed himself for his friends (by diving to retrieve the oar). We found him 13 hours later.”

Despite attracting praise, Tsiligeridu denies she is a heroine stating that anybody in her position would have done the same for a man who was trembling from hypothermia.

Besmar also took to Facebook, writing: “I’m very sorry for having entered Greece illegally, but I had no other way of fleeing from the war that has destroyed my country. I was in the water for hours and I thought I was finished when the boat approached and Sandra saved me. I cannot find the words to thank her and the other people on board.”

The model says that seeing the desperation in Besmar’s eyes has changed her attitude and life. As an ordinary Greek, seeing her cash-strapped country further strained by the influx of refugees she was often angered by the scenes in the media, but says that the personal story of this man’s plight has helped her rethink her stand.