Mother tells of her frantic efforts to keep daughter alive
THE mother of the first victim to be identified told last night how she tried frantically to revive her teenage daughter while emergency crews fought to save her life.
Lesley Callander had been searching desperately for student Georgina, 18, following the blast after going to pick her up from the concert.
Ms Callander recalled: ‘She was on a stretcher and they were doing resuscitation.
‘I was just screaming and shouting at her. I was rubbing her hand, her tummy and her face.’
Speaking to ITV News, she closed her eyes as she added: ‘All the images are so vivid now. I can see everything.’
Yesterday, Ms Callander and her husband Simon joined hundreds of people at a memorial held at St Ann’s Square in Manchester, where heart-shaped balloons were released into the air.
Georgina was a huge fan of Ariana and earlier had been counting down the hours until the concert, her parents said. She had even met the singer after a concert in 2015.
‘She kept texting me, telling me her tummy was turning over,’ Ms Callander said. ‘She was so, so excited.’
Ms Callander, from Lancashire, described the last time she saw her daughter alive, waving off her and a friend before the concert: ‘I took some photos of them before they went in and gave them a big hug and said, “Just have an amazing time.”’
Georgina’s tearful father Simon said he felt like he had let his daughter down. ‘I should have been there to hold her hand when she was lying there,’ he said.
‘I should have been there to hold her hand.’
Comforting him, his wife told him: ‘I was, my love, I was.’
Meanwhile, it emerged that Lisa Roussos, the mother of the youngest victim, eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, is improving in hospital and that steps have been taken to bring her out of her coma. A second operation on Thursday went very well, according to a family friend.
However, it is not yet known whether Ms Roussos is aware that her daughter died. Saffie was with her mother and half-sister Ashlee Bromwich, 25, whose condition is also believed to be improving.
Saffie’s father Andrew, from Leyland, Lancashire, is said to be ‘staying strong’ to focus on their recovery.
A headteacher from Manchester whose wife was left badly injured in the atrocity had narrowly avoided being hurt in the Westminster Bridge attack in March, it emerged last night.
James Eldon, 45, described having ‘one of the worst weeks of my life’ after his wife Julia and daughter Amelia were caught up in the horrific event. Ms Eldon required surgery to remove a bolt from her leg.
Mr Eldon was at the Commons for a meeting in March when Khalid Masood struck.