04 Nov Manchester Arena terror attack survivor tells of life coping with PTSD
MANCHESTER Arena bombing survivor Amelia Mae Thompson has spoken about coping with PTSD and said the incident “ruined” her whole childhood.
Amelia was speaking ahead of the publication of the report of the official inquiry into the 2017 terror attack which killed 23 people and left 1,017 injured.
She said: “I think because it impacted me at such a young age since I was only 11, when it occurred, my whole childhood kind of was like ruined in a way, like I never lived a normal life from that moment.
“So for me, I can’t really remember a time before what I was like before that. All I can remember is me suffering from PTSD and anxiety and dealing with the consequences of that night.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get over it or will ever be able to, because it’s such a part of my life now from being impacted at such a young age.”
Speaking in an interview during Breakfast with Isabel Webster and Andrew Pierce, she said: “I think that through the inquiry, I’ll be able to actually see where people went wrong and what could have been prevented before that horrible situation took place and what should have happened after to ensure not only our safety, but every single person’s safety there.
So I think from that perspective of actually finally, letting it out of who was, who did mess up on the night is really important to not only me, but I imagine all the families and all the other survivors as well just to finally have that kind of knowledge of what of what of why what happened and what went wrong, really.”
Amelia’s mother Lisa said: “I find it upsetting. It’s – she almost missed her childhood, like a lot of people who were there, and mistakes were made that night and people need to own up.
“It’s just been very difficult, from my perspective, getting any sort of counselling…Amelia is still under the hospital, so she’s still under the CAMS five years later and she’s now got anorexia.
“She’s been diagnosed with severe PTSD, she’s on five lots of medication, so every day is a struggle.
“But every day, obviously, we think of the 22 families, we’re very close to the families as well.”
