 During a brief visit to Cairo, Mary Spears met Madame Catroux, wife of General Georges Catroux, General de Gaulle's High Commissioner to the Levant, who did not approve of Free French wounded being cared for by British nurses.However, instead of going to Eritrea and the Sudan, as they had expected, the unit was sent to Sarafand in Palestine, where they were joined by Colonel Fruchaud, a renowned French surgeon, and a French detachment from Eritrea.Passing through Samaria and Galilee and crossing Transjordania they reached Deraa in Syria.