Teen who survived Manchester terror attack releases heart-rending book

A teenager badly injured in the Manchester Arena bombing today reveals how the memory of her best friend who died beside her in the terrorist attack has given her the strength to rebuild her life.

Arms linked as they left the Ariana Grande concert, 14-year-olds Freya Lewis and Nell Jones, were just 30ft away from Salman Abedi when he detonated a backpack full of explosives, killing 22 people.

Nell was among them but Freya survived, albeit with 29 serious injuries that left her in a coma for five days and confined to a wheelchair for three months.

In extracts from her heart-rending book, What Makes Us Stronger, published today in You magazine, Freya recalls how her father broke the news that her friend was dead as she came round in hospital.

‘Dad sat next to me, his head in his hands. I felt a strange sense of emptiness, like a part of me was missing. ‘Dad, where’s Nell?’ I croaked. He held my hand, his face pale and drained, his eyes red. ‘Nell has died, Freya,’ he said, his voice choked with tears. His words sank into me so hard it felt as if I’d been stabbed.’

Describing their final moments at the concert in May 2017, Freya, now 17, from Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, writes: ‘Neither of us wanted to leave, but as we made our way to the foyer, Nell gave me a big smile. ‘That was the best night of my entire life,’ she said. ‘Really?’ I beamed. ‘I’m so glad.’ She linked her arms with mine, like we always did, to keep each other close.’

Moments later she was texting her father when she noticed Abedi. ‘I looked up and saw this guy… I thought his deadpan expression seemed a bit strange.’

In the exact moment she sent her text, ‘everything went wrong. There was a piercing sound – the loudest sound I’d ever heard’. Freya was rushed to hospital, where doctors spent ‘ten hours intricately bolting, drilling, sewing and bandaging me back together again’ – the first of five sessions of surgery lasting 23 hours.

Her recovery was agonising. ‘My nights were filled with terrifying hallucinations and, when I wasn’t asleep, guilt… I became convinced that Nell’s mum must hate me because I’d survived. I wished it was me who had died and not my beautiful, funny, sweet friend.’

Ms Grande visited Freya in hospital and they wept together. But Freya says the experience, however harrowing, has made her stronger.

‘I could either give up and allow myself to be consumed by fear and anger, or see it as a second chance in life,’ she writes. ‘I chose the latter.’