GOLDEN TICKET GUEST LIST
Royal Wedding invitation for arena bomb survivor
IT WAS a fairytale moment of which she could scarcely have dreamt – a golden ticket which told her that, like Cinderella, she would go to the ball.
Amelia Thompson, a 12-yearold survivor of the Manchester Arena bombing, had spent a year recovering from the trauma, when the invitation to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived at her home, south of Sheffield.
“I was speechless. I could not respond,” she said.
The dress code, she added, could be summed up as “posh”.
Miss Thompson had been among the crowd when the bomb went off in the arena foyer after a concert by Ariana Grande, and had suffered damaged vocal cords from screaming at the horror she was witnessing.
It was an ordeal that placed her yesterday among the 1,200 members of the public whom Kensington Palace had promised would be allowed into the grounds of Windsor Castle to share in the atmosphere of next month’s wedding at St George’s Chapel.
The group, from every walk of life, also includes Reuben Litherland, a schoolboy who was born deaf and has started teaching his fellow pupils sign language, and Rosie Ginday, a pastry chef of 34 who set up a social enterprise bakery that reinvests its profits into developing the potential of disadvantaged young people.
But every fairy story needs a villain and this one was President Donald Trump, whose name was noticeably absent from the couple’s guest list. Instead of world leaders, they dodged awkward questions by picking 600 guests with whom they have a direct relationship.
The wedding list is in stark contrast to that of Harry’s elder brother, the Duke of Cambridge, whose ceremony at Westminster Abbey was peopled with foreign heads of state and leading figures from national life.
In the village of Dronfield Woodhouse, close to Yorkshire’s southernmost border, Miss Thompson could barely contain her excitement.
Describing herself as a classic “Disney princess” when she was younger, she said she could not wait to go dress shopping and that she “used to go through 10 outfits a day”.
She said her mother, Lisa Newton, had at her request forfeited her place at the wedding in favour of their friend Sharon Goodman, whose 15-year-old granddaughter, Olivia Campbell-Hardy, was killed at the concert in Manchester.
Ms Newton said that her decision had “felt like the right thing to do”.
“We had quite a lot of families contact us and we’ve got really close to a couple and love them to bits,” she said. “I’m experiencing it through Amelia going and I think it’s just nice that somebody who’s really struggling and has lost so much can go and experience it and, hopefully, put a smile on her face.”
Ms Newton added: “Sharon’s looking forward to it and that’s what matters.
“We’ll spend a few days together down there. I’ll go with Amelia as far as I can then I’ll be standing at the street side like everyone else, waving.”
Mrs Goodman said it was typical of her friend’s selflessness to give up her ticket.
She said: “I’ve formed a bond with Amelia and so have other relatives. She’s just a pleasant, beautiful young lady. And courageous.
“It’s just a privilege really, it’s an honour.”
Sharon’s looking forward to it and that’s what matters Lisa Newton, who forfeited her place for grandmother Sharon Goodman.