Undertakes 79-mile polar challenge in memory of 22 victims

with guns. It was total confusion. Some security guards were telling us to get out, others were saying stay put and stay calm. About five minutes later a Tannoy announcement said there had been an incident and to please leave the arena.

“I was really scared. I thought I would die, but I couldn’t even phone my mum to tell her I loved her because there was no mobile service. When we got to the exit, security had locked the doors and there was smoke coming through. We thought we were trapped. There was a lot of screaming and crying.. “Then the doors opened. Where the explosion happened was right in front of us. Security were directing us to another exit and telling us to run. Through the smoke I saw quite a lot of bodies and blood and bits of bolts and nails. It was like a war zone. I went into that concert as a child and came out into a war zone.

“Outside on the main steps there were people bleeding and other desperate people trying to get into the arena to look for loved ones. We managed to get to the car and I burst into tears. We still weren’t sure what happened but later it came on the news. I realised that if we had left that 30 seconds earlier we would have been in the foyer when the bomb went off. We were 30 seconds from dying. When I finally spoke to my mum, she just started crying.

“The bombing really changed everything. I had gained such a lot of confidence from the Polar Academy. But now, every time

I closed my eyes, I could see those bodies. I was having nightmares. It is hard to live with the deaths of 22 people when you are still alive. I had survivor guilt. I couldn’t live with it. I felt suicidal.”

Iona, a former pupil of Gracemount High School, sought advice from her

mentor Craig Mathieson, the founder and leader of Scotland’s Polar Academy, set up to give youngsters resilience with Arctic training and expeditions.

She said: “Craig told me to see a therapist. I did. She suspected PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I was in therapy for 17 months. It was hard but I had to understand that what I was going through was me processing my emotions. I had to learn to live with it. The resilience I gained from the Polar Academy helped. I have turned a corner now. I am living for those who died.”

Craig, who nominated Iona for the Pole of Possibility expedition, said: “It’s for people like Iona that I started the Polar Academy. I could see the huge potential in her – her courage, kindness and leadership. With everything that happened, I couldn’t be more proud of what’s she’s doing with Karen Darke.” Twenty-two-year-old suicide bomber Salman Adebi’s younger brother, Hashem Abedi, was convicted of 22 counts of murder in March at the Old Bailey in London and is expected to be sentenced in August.

GOLD METTLE

When a climbing accident left her paralysed from the chest down, Karen Darke found new ways to access the wilderness and has since sit-skied across the Greenland icecap and climbed El Capitan, a 3,000ft sheer cliff face in the USA’S Yosemite National Park. But it was a decade of competitive hand-cycling that took her to a gold medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.