Manchester bombing victim Georgina Callander’s family has hit out at the Government over her death, saying it must “open its eyes” or more parents will lose children to terror.
The 18-year-old was killed in the blast shortly after her favourite artist Ariana Grande left the stage at the Manchester Arena on Monday.
In a statement released through Greater Manchester Police, her family said the teenager’s life had been cut short by “evil, evil men prepared to ruin lives and destroy families”.
Screengrab from the gofundme page set up in memory of Georgina Callander, left, who has died as a result of injuries sustained in an explosion at the Manchester Arena where she had been attending a concert by Ariana Grande, right (Gareth Fuller/PA)
It added: “I wish I could say that Georgina is one of the last to die in this way but unless our Government opens its eyes we know we are only another in a long line of parents on a list that continues to grow.”
The teenager, from Chorley, was in her second year of studying health and social care at Runshaw College in Leyland, Lancashire, and had previously been a pupil at Bishop Rawstorne Church of England Academy.
She had recently passed her driving test, was “doing great” in her exams and had been accepted into Edge Hill University.
“Here was a girl who was loving life,” they said.
(Family handout/PA)
The family’s statement said: “On the 22 May 2017 our lives changed forever as our amazing daughter Georgina Bethany Callander was senselessly taken away.
“Her life was taken away after 18 short years by evil, evil men prepared to ruin lives and destroy families, for what?
“Georgina was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside, with a smile that was never ending.
“She always had big hugs for everyone and her life was blooming like the flowers she loved.”
(Family handout/PA)
The family paid tribute to the “wonderful police and rescue services” and thanked the public for their support.
They said the “hugs, love and kind words” from people in their local community had had “a profound effect” on them.
Lesley Callander found her daughter on a stretcher as paramedics fought to save her life in the aftermath of the explosion.
She described her desperate efforts to bring comfort to the teenager’s final moments to ITV news on Saturday.
(Family handout/PA)
“I was just screaming and shouting at her. I was rubbing her hands, I was rubbing her tummy, I was rubbing her face,” she said.
“I don’t know what was running through her mind.
“It was just a flicker of hope that she’d move her hand or move her leg or try and open her eyes a little, just to acknowledge that I was there, just to let me know that she was very, very poorly but she knew that I was there.”
The night’s event was supposed to have been a memorable one for the young music fan.
As the date of the concert came closer, excitement reached fever pitch, her mother said.
“She kept texting me telling me her tummy was turning over. She was so, so excited.”
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