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Manchester victim's mother reveals how she tried to comfort her daughter in her final moments

Georgina Callander (left) pictured with singer Ariana Grande, whose concert was targeted - Instagram
Georgina Callander (left) pictured with singer Ariana Grande, whose concert was targeted - Instagram

The mother of a teenage 'superfan' killed in the Manchester Arena terror attack has spoken of her desperate efforts to comfort her as she lay dying.

Georgina Callander - who had been previously photographed with US singer Ariana Grande - was killed in the blast shortly after the star left the stage.

Her mother Lesley, who found her daughter on a stretcher, told ITV news: "They [paramedics] were working, doing resuscitation and getting her down the stairs.

"I was just screaming and shouting at her. I was rubbing her hands, I was rubbing her tummy, I was rubbing her face." She added: "It was just a flicker of hope that she'd move her hand or move her leg or try and open her eyes a little, just to acknowledge that I was there, just to let me know that she was very, very poorly but she knew that I was there."

Georgina Callander - Credit: Cavendish Press 
Georgina's father says he feels guilty for not being there when she died Credit: Cavendish Press

The 18-year-old from Hesketh Bank, Lancashire, had been desperately excited about attending Monday night's concert.

"She kept texting me telling me her tummy was turning over," said Mrs Callander. "She was so, so excited."

Georgina's father Simon said he was wracked with guilt for not being with his daughter that evening.

"I should have been there to hold her hand, when she was lying there," he said.

Like hundreds of young girls who had flocked to the concert 12-year-old Phoebe Green was ecstatic at having seen her pop idol.

But as she left the event with her mother Sian, Salman Adebi set off his murderous device, killing 22 people and spraying shrapnel into Phoebe’s leg.

Sian Green and her daughter Phoebe
Sian Green and her daughter Phoebe, 12 at the Ariana Grande concert before the attack.

Now however, as she recovers at Bristol Children’s Hospital hospital from her injuries, lucky to be alive, the schoolgirl has expressed a quiet determination not to let the terrorists win.

Phoebe has told her mother she wants to return to Manchester to attend the benefit concert Grande intends to play for victims of the outrage.

“She would like to go to the memorial concert,” said Ms Green.

“We were planning to return to Manchester anyway, to revisit the city and find some closure.”  

Hers is a remarkably uplifting message for a city and a nation left stunned by an attack on girls like Phoebe, all the more so because of the pain and terror she endured in the moments after the bombing.

Manchester terror attack victims
The victims of the Manchester terror attack

Ms Green and Phoebe, who had gone to the concert for her 12th birthday treat, passed through the foyer heading towards the exit doors seconds before Abedi set off his home-made rucksack bomb. The blast knocked Ms Green, 40, off her feet and sent shards of the shrapnel Adebi had packed into the device tearing through Phoebe’s leg.

“We were slightly ahead of the blast. I probably walked past the guy and didn’t even clock him,” said Ms Green.

“I heard the noise and then the blast knocked me completely to the floor.  It was like tidal wave of air. Phoebe got hit by something. They think it was a nut or a bolt which pierced the bone and split the tendon in her ankle.”  

Looking around her in terror, Phoebe saw her mother laid out on the foyer floor.

“She thought I was dead,” explained Ms Green. “She ran off and phoned her dad.”  

terror
Sian Green with her daughter Phoebe who survived the Manchester terror attack.

After staggering to her feet Ms Green endured an agonising 15-minute search for her daughter amid the chaos, not realising she had also been hit by shrapnel in her hand.

“I was frantic. I was crying and calling her name but there were so many sirens and people screaming I couldn’t hear my own voice,” she said. Fortunately two passers-by found Phoebe and took care of her until they managed to reunite her with her mother.

Ms Green said: “They were lovely – they pointed out to me that she’d been injured, they bandaged my hand and gave us money for a taxi.”

The pair stumbled upon paramedics, who treated Phoebe and put them in a taxi to a nearby hospital. Ms Green is convinced that had they not been in a hurry to leave the concert to get back to Bristol, they might well have been killed.

Phoebe underwent two operations, including a skin graft to her foot, and is now recovering.

Key articles | Manchester Arena explosion
Key articles | Manchester Arena explosion