Open your eyes, grieving family urges Government
THE heartbroken family of a Manchester bombing victim urged the Government yesterday to “open its eyes” to our deadly terror threat.
Georgina Callander, 18, was among 22 killed last Monday.
Yesterday, her family said the teenager’s life had been cut short by “evil, evil men prepared to ruin lives and destroy families”.
But the grieving family, from Chorley, Lancs, also urged MI5, police and the Government to do more to stop terrorism here.
Through Greater Manchester Police, the Callanders said: “Unless our Government opens its eyes we know we are only another in a long line of parents that continues to grow.”
Miss Callander, from Chorley, was “loving life”, having recently passed her driving test and been accepted into Edge Hill University, the family said.
The family’s statement said: “Her life was taken away after 18 short years by evil, evil men prepared to ruin lives and destroy families, for what?
“Georgina was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside, with a smile that was never ending. Her life was blooming like the flowers she loved.”
The family paid tribute to the “wonderful police and rescue services” and thanked the public for “hugs, love and kind words”.
Lesley Callander found her daughter on a stretcher as paramedics fought to save her.
She described her desperate efforts to bring comfort to the teenager’s final moments: “I was just screaming and shouting at her. I was rubbing her hands, I was rubbing her tummy, I was rubbing her face.
“I don’t know what was running through her mind. It was just a flicker of hope that she’d move her hand or 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.” The family of victim Nell Jones, 14, from Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, said yesterday: “We can’t wrap our children in cotton wool. She was so excited to go to her first pop concert. Our hearts have been shattered. She was our world.”
Relatives of off-duty Detective Constable Elaine McIver, 43, said yesterday she had been “the glue” that held their family together.
The Cheshire police officer had been at Manchester Arena last Monday with partner Paul, to collect his daughter, 13, and her friend from the pop concert.
But she and Paul were both caught in the explosion. He remained seriously ill last night.