Manchester bombing: Victim's mum defies injuries to complete 10km run

A woman who was badly injured in the Manchester bomb attack and lost her eight-year-old daughter in the atrocity has defied the odds to complete the city's 10km race.

Lisa Roussos was holding her daughter Saffie's hand when the bomb exploded at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena two years ago.

After a six-week coma Lisa woke up to hear that her daughter had died.

Over the past two years she has learned to walk again and still suffers from nerve damage.

At the start line of the Great Manchester Run she explained that her sole focus was her daughter, saying: "I feel we are taking her forward into the future with us by doing this and I don't think people can understand that but you have to take them into the future because you can't see a future without them."

The event was also the culmination of a series of 22 long distance runs by Greater Manchester firefighter Aaron Parmar who has run a race for each of the 22 victims.

He ran in full firefighters kit in memory of Saffie and paid tribute to Lisa's "inspirational" recovery.

He told Sky News: "For her to get herself into a race like this is unbelievable - she's the real hero, not me."

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who also ran the course, said: "If I could explain to people the Lisa I first met who could barely walk into my office I think they would have an idea then of what it means for her to be doing this.

"In some ways she symbolises the place (Manchester) doesn't she? That we will never be broken - we will always keep going."

At the end of the race on Deansgate Lisa and her supporters held each other's hands aloft and walked across the finishing line in unison.

She joked: "I just want to sit down with a cup of tea....my knee went at one point but my physio helped - I used her as a crutch."

She then thanked everyone who had supported her around the course in Manchester, adding: "It is the most amazing city in the world, it really is."