Ariana: My angel Lily
Pop beauty Grande meets new pal as security is stepped up for star-studded benefit concert
A MANCHESTER terror attack victim said she felt like a rock star after a visit from pop star Ariana Grande.
Little Lily Harrison is recovering in hospital after being caught up in the attack at the Manchester Arena on May 22.
Lily, eight, who suffered shrapnel injuries and a bruised lung, was visited by the American singer in the Royal Manchester Children’s hospital.
Wearing an Ariana Grande top and with a teddy bear on her bed, she was all smiles as she received a hug from her idol.
Ariana, 22, told her: “I’m so proud of you. You are so strong. You are doing really well.”
Her father Adam, 32, said it gave him goosebumps.
He said: “Ariana lit the room up. She was absolutely fantastic.
“She knelt by Lily’s bed and asked her lots of questions. She had so much time for her. “Lily was bouncing off the walls. She was so excited. She is her biggest fan. “She wants to get home now and I think she feels like she’s a bit of a rock star now.” Her mother Lauren said Lily, who also received a visit from Prince William, has not stopped talking about Ariana ever since.
Her dad said Lily is “on cloud nine” and is “chomping at the bit” to go to the One Love Manchester concert today.
He said: “She was so nervous. We were the last room on the ward that she came to visit, so I think the excitement was building and building, and then she came skipping in.”
Lily, from Stockport, was thrown to the floor when sick Salman Abedi blew himself up, receiving a wound to her back and knocking her out.
Adam said: “It was a tough realisation that we thought we may have lost her.
“She did come round 30 seconds later, so going from rock bottom to then…
“The wound was on her spine, so I was patting her legs and pinching her legs to see if she had a sense of feeling, and she did.
“We had kind of gone from rock bottom to… I wouldn’t say it was euphoric but it was very positive and uplifting that she was OK.”
Ariana also surprised 10-year-old Jaden Farrell-Mann, from Denton, Greater Manchester, and Evie Mills, 14, from Harrogate, North Yorks.