‘We Never Thought It Would Be Her'

Friends And Relatives Of Australian Girl Sara Zelenak, Killed In The 2017 London Bridge Attack, Speak To Cosmo’s Katie Stow About What It’s Really Like To Lose A Loved One To Terrorism

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The third of June, 2017, was a day like any other for Sara Zelenak, a 21-year-old from Brisbane who had moved to London to work as a nanny like so many Aussies do after finishing high school. She had put the kids to bed and was given the rest of the evening off. A typical 21-year-old, she decided to call her Au Pair friends to organise a night out. When kicking on to a different bar, Sara was caught up in something she could never have predicted: A terrorist attack.

‘Sara was the life and soul of the party. She loved to dance, knew how to twerk, and would just light up a room the second she walked in,’ explains Sara’s mum, Julie. ‘She played representative basketball her whole life, but she was equally as obsessed with watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians,’ Sara’s dad, Mark, chimes in. ‘She knew far too much about celebrities – who they were, what they were worth, what they were doing at any point in time.’

Obsessed with shopping at Zara and berated by her parents for spending too much money on eyebrow products, Sara was just like any other Cosmo girl – hard working, fun-loving and excited about what the future had in store for her. She had her sights set on being a flight attendant one day, with Emirates being her dream airline, but as her best friend Sarah Beverley explains, she felt a bit lost after high school and decided to take a year off to go travelling.

‘When I found out Sarz was going overseas, I was really happy for her,’ Sarah says. ‘Lots of her other friends, myself included, jumped straight into uni – but that was never Sarz. So I was happy that she was going to travel and be a nanny.’