Six months since the Manchester Arena bomb and we are still vigilant

It’s six months today since the Manchester terror attack when twenty two people lost their lives.

On 22nd May a bomb was detonated at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena. Twenty two people were killed and hundreds more were injured, physically and psychologically.

After the vigils, the tears and the tattoos, comes the reality of trying to move on.

One of the survivors left disabled by the bomb told ITV’s Granada Reports that he feels forgotten as support starts to slip away.

Martin Hibbert, who was at the concert with his daughter, took 22 bolts to his body. He was left paralysed following the attack and has been fighting his way back to fitness ever since.

He says without the We Love MCR charity he’d be struggling.

“I can’t believe 6 months has gone,” he said. “It only feels like last month.

“I was housebound for five weeks. The We Love MCR Fund has given me the money to buy equipment like an electronic wheelchair. Some people think the victims like me have received millions of pounds but that’s not the case.”

Other families are making plans for the future knowing things will never be the same.

Charlotte Campbell, who lost her fifteen-year old daughter Olivia in the attack, is getting married in a few days time. She will be walked down the aisle by Adam Lawler, her daughter’s best friend, to the sound of Olivia singing John Legend’s All Of Me.

In the last few days, posters bearing the words, ‘For our 22 angels. We miss you. We stand together’ were distributed following the Little Mix concerts at the Arena.

The words of Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham following the terror attack, still ring true. “We are grieving but we are strong and united. This is Manchester.”

It’s our responsibility to show both vigilance and resilience. How the city has both respected the victims and also returned to normality. We stand together.

https://ilovemanchester.com/2017/08/29/manchester-100-days-arena-terror-attack.aspx