Back From The Brink

We all face difficult times – but after hitting rock bottom, these three women needed huge reserves of courage to find a way back to happiness…

- Kim Willis

“I SURVIVED THE 7/7 LONDON BOMBINGS”

MARTINE WRIGHT, 46, is an author and motivational speaker, and plays sitting volleyball for Team GB. She lives in Tring, Hertfordshire, with husband Nick, 46, and their son Oscar, nine.

A year after the 7/7 bombings, I left hospital with two prosthetic legs. I had healed physically, but the psychological battle continued. So much I’d once taken for granted was gone. Staying with my mum, all I wanted was to walk out the door and return to my own flat, my independence and my life before the bomb. But that life was over. I had to find out who I was going to be now.

Before 7 July 2005, I was an international marketing manager. I’d been with Nick for two years and loved being a Londoner – never more so than the day when it was announced we had won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. The next morning I hit the snooze button, giving myself an extra 10 minutes in bed. I left home in a hurry and headed to work. When I saw there was a signal failure on the Northern line, I took the Circle line instead. I boarded a train just as the doors were closing, felt pleased to get a seat, then opened my newspaper to read about the Olympics. I vowed to get tickets.

At 8.49am, my life changed forever. There was a prolonged flash and the carriage filled with smoke. I thought we’d crashed. People were screaming and as the smoke began to clear, I saw a shoe impaled on the ceiling. It was my white trainer, covered in blood. My foot was still inside. I couldn’t move. The metalwork of the carriage had entwined my legs.