Mother tells of her frantic efforts to keep daughter alive
THE mother of the first victim to be identified told last night how she tried frantically to revive her teenage daughter while emergency crews fought to save her life.
Lesley Callander had been searching desperately for student Georgina, 18, following the blast after going to pick her up from the concert.
Mrs Callander recalled: ‘She was on a stretcher and they were doing resuscitation. I was just screaming and shouting at her. I was rubbing her hand, her tummy and her face.’
Speaking to ITV News, she closed her eyes as she added: ‘All the images are so vivid now. I can see everything.’
Yesterday, Mrs Callander and her husband Simon joined hundreds of people at a memorial held at St Ann’s Square in Manchester, where heart-shaped balloons were released into the air.
Mrs Callander, from Tarleton, Lancashire, described the last time she saw her daughter alive, waving off her and a friend before the concert.
She said: ‘I took some photos of them together before they went in and gave them a big hug and said, “Just have an amazing time.”’
Georgina’s tearful father Simon said he felt like he had let his daughter down. ‘I should have been there to hold her hand when she was lying there,’ he said. ‘I should have been there to hold her hand.’
Mother-of-one Chelsea Aitchison, 19, from Greenock, and her friend, Nicola Lamplugh, 24, from Holytown, Lanarkshire, were among
dozens of Scots caught up in the bombing.
Chelsea said: ‘People were pushing and people were climbing over banisters and flinging themselves over chairs and throwing their belongings away so they could run faster. We both phoned our parents. I said to my mum, “I don’t think I’m going to see you again, I love you. Please look after my son”.’
Muslim Saima Shah, 38, a beauty salon owner from Perth, escaped with a minor injury to her leg. She said: ‘I feel angry at the people behind this barbaric attack, but they do not represent the Muslims and Islam in my view.’
Father Paul Morton, of St Bride’s Church in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, said the congregation was praying for Polish-born factory worker Piotr Chylewska, 43, hit by shrapnel while waiting to pick up his wife Ewa, daughter Amelia, 12, and her friend.
Father Morton said: ‘He had to be identified by a tattoo on his arm. He’s not critical but he’s very seriously injured.’
On Friday the parents of Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from Barra, spoke of the daughter they lost. Her friend Laura MacIntyre, 15, remains critically injured. Roddy and Marion MacLeod said: ‘Eilidh and Laura were so excited about going to the concert together but what should have been the perfect ending to a fantastic trip ended tragically.’