Yes there are tough days but I wouldn’t change anything
MARTINE WRIGHT, who lost both her legs in the 7/7 London terror attacks, tells us why she’s always looking towards her next challenge
AS SHE watched the recent terror attacks in Manchester and London unfold on the news, Martine Wright felt the memories come flooding back. A survivor of the 7/7 London bombings in July 2005, she knows first hand the horror and confusion that come with being caught up in the carnage.
“I see certain images on the television and they bring back awful memories,” says Martine, 44. “I know how they feel, I still remember how gut-wrenchingly frightened I was when it happened.
“What upsets me is knowing the pain other families will be going through.”
The London 7/7 terror attack, which targeted travellers on the city’s packed public transport system, saw 52 people lose their lives.
Martine, who now lives in Tring, Hertfordshire with her photographer husband Nick, 44, and their eight-year-old son Oscar, was the last survivor to be pulled from the Circle Line wreckage.
She lost 80 per cent of her blood and was in a coma for seven days after the attack. When she woke up she was told her legs had been amputated.
“In those early days I thought my life was over. I was despondent,” she says. “It was so shocking. I kept looking down and saying, ‘I’ve got no legs’.”
However three weeks after the attack, when she was at her lowest ebb, Martine had a revelation.
“I was in hospital and my mum said to me: ‘You’re still here.’ And I knew she was right. I could have been killed but I wasn’t. I was still Martine and I could get new legs. I told myself to get it together.”
MARTINE says the love and support shown by those around her helped when the going got tough. “I didn’t have to go through it alone. Nick was by my side the whole time and I couldn’t have done it without him.
“I also had so much support from the NHS staff and emergency services who risked their own lives that day, the other victims whom I talked to and my mentor who coached me through coming to terms with losing my legs.
“And I had lots of counselling. At first I had flashbacks and post-traumatic stress but I don’t have nightmares any more.”
Three months after the attack Martine stood up for the first time and in October 2005 she was given prosthetic legs so she could learn to walk again. In June 2006 she was allowed home for good but as her first-floor flat in north London wasn’t wheelchair accessible, she moved to Hertfordshire.
“Once I was out of hospital I was a woman on a mission,” she says. “The memories of what I used to be able to do hurt badly so I was determined to make some new ones.”
Martine went skydiving, skiing and jetted to South Africa to learn to fly a plane. Then in 2008 she walked down the aisle to marry Nick in a beautiful ceremony in Hertfordshire.
It was early that same year that her physiotherapist took her to a taster day for the Paralympics.
“She knew I was looking for a new dream to replace the ambition and drive that I used to feel,” says Martine.
Martine fell in love with sitting volleyball and started to play. Then in October 2009 she was selected for the London 2012 Paralympic Games team. “It was so surreal,” she says. “Training in the run up to the Games was emotionally and physically the hardest slog but it was so worth it. To be able to go back to London after leaving on such a negative was amazing.”
Martine says her star turn in the Paralympics was down to fate.
“Now I believe it was a journey I was always meant to make,” she explains.
“I was late on the morning of the bombing because I’d been out the night before celebrating that London had won its bid for the Olympics. The last thing I thought on the Tube was the fact that I wanted to get tickets for the Games.
“Seven years after 7/7 I was an athlete at the Paralympics, wearing a number seven on my shirt and our first competition was on July 7. I feel like by embracing that number I’ve turned it into something positive. I’ve owned it.”
After taking part in the 2012 Games, Martine was asked to present coverage of the Paralympics in Rio last summer and will also be reporting from the Invictus Games this September.
Before the London attacks she was an international marketing manager who travelled the world as part of her career. But she says everything changed after 7/7. “Three years after the attack I did go back to the office where I used to work but within five minutes I knew it wasn’t for me.
“I knew I had to do something else as a result of what happened to me that day otherwise all that pain would have been for nothing,” says Martine, who also works as a motivational speaker and mentors people who have lost limbs.
SHE says her biggest achievement is her son Oscar. “He’s very caring and sensitive. Before he was born and when he was a baby I worried about what effect my disability might have on him. I thought kids might be cruel at school.
“But he has so much strength and is such a positive, optimistic boy. He educates his friends about it. They know that disability isn’t about not being able to do something but about being able to do it in a slightly different way.”
Remarkably, Martine says she holds no resentment towards the 7/7 terrorists. “I wouldn’t change the course of my life. If someone gave me Doctor Who’s Tardis I wouldn’t go back,” she says.
“Some days are hard but I’ve had the opportunity to do so much and hopefully I will have the opportunity to do so much more.
“I hope sharing my story will help others going through tough times, whatever that may be. They can think, ‘Well if Martine got through it, maybe I can too’.”
She says she now has a different perspective on life and is excited about the future.
“Little things don’t bother me like they would have done 12 years ago. I feel very lucky to be here. I just want to enjoy life, spending time with family and friends,” she says.
“I lost my legs in a unique way, though now it is not as uncommon as it was before. So I would also like to use my experience to help other people who are going through similar things.”
And watch this space, as Martine has set her sights on her biggest challenge yet. “I’d like to do an expedition. Perhaps you’ll interview me in a year’s time and I’ll have climbed Everest. I’ll always believe in myself.”