Hope not hatred is what the grieving victims need now

I was in Manchester on Thursday, delivering my first ever motivational speech, talking about resilience in the face of adversity, telling people about all the things that I had to tap into to survive the last eight years since my son Martyn died in the Manchester Arena attack in May 2017.

- FIGEN MURRAY

As I was coming to the end of my presentation, we could hear sirens. Although that is nothing out of the ordinary in Manchester’s city centre, things felt slightly different in the potency of the sounds. It felt a few notches out of the ordinary. A few minutes later, people started getting news reports on their phones about what had happened - two people had been killed and four were in hospital after a car and knife attack at a synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, only a few streets away from where we were.

Today, I feel totally devastated for the Jewish community, shocked that people have been killed and injured. I know only too well what lies ahead for them. Life as they knew it has now changed forever. Terrorists would seek to divide society, create fear, incite anger through their actions and destroy what we stand for. But they will never succeed. I should know. It has happened to me.