The Manchester Bombing: My Story

My name is Maria Winter and on the 22nd of May 2017, I was involved in the Manchester arena attack.

I remember how excited I was to be finally seeing my idol, I couldn’t wait. One of my closest friends also wanted to share this experience with me, so we went together. I was the happiest girl in the world! My dad drove us to the arena. The journey was quite long and I remember listening to Ariana’s Dangerous Woman album on repeat to make the journey seem quicker. Once we were dropped off, thousands of people were waiting to get in at the entrance - it was crazy. I already don’t particularly like large crowds, so I felt slightly uncertain (a feeling I didn’t listen to). As we went through security, I remember thinking how minimal this was. I understand they needed to get people in quickly, however their effort needed to be twice as thorough.

We made it to our seats and waited for Ariana to come out. The arena was packed, and when she first came onto the stage the whole arena shook with excitement and positive energy. The show was amazing! (I mean I couldn’t really hear her from all the screaming fans), but it was still amazing! During her final song, I got a message from my dad saying he was waiting in the foyer to pick us up, so we thought we would escape and get to the toilet before the crowd, so off we went. We managed to get out of the toilet before it happened.

I remember seeing a flashing light and hearing the loudest noise of my life, it was awful. I can’t remember much, but I didn’t know which way to go. My friend grabbed my hand as thousands of people started running and screaming towards us, so we turned and ran. I remember feeling scared that my dad wouldn’t be able to find us, but that was the last thing I should have worried about. As people cried out to us asking where their kids were, I rang my dad but couldn’t get an answer. He didn’t reply to anything. I started to panic.

As much as I wanted to run back in to find my dad, we made it to a hotel and hid there - there were rumours of more guns. My friend got a call from her dad saying my dad was seriously injured. I thought he’d died. I was so helpless and didn’t know what was going on. We waited in this hotel until our mum’s drove to our aid, but all we could do was wait. Some of the people we met in the hotel were so kind and comforting, I can’t thank them enough.

My dad was rushed to surgery with very bad injuries and he will forever be marked by this event. We didn’t sleep for the next two nights as images of what we saw replayed in our heads. There are still days where I sit and think about this, thinking how unfortunate but lucky I was to survive it. I am so thankful for my friends and family and wonder why any human being would want to try and end someone else’s life. This day will forever have an impact.

But I just wanted to say that many people have been affected by this and you’re not alone. I wanted to share my story to make people aware of the impact this had on families, but remember we can get through anything.