IT HAS BEEN 10 years since the London bombings which killed 56 people and injured more than 700 people.
Gill Hicks lost both her legs in the attack.
Speaking to Ray D’Arcy on RTÉ Radio 1, Hicks said she has since learnt she was just one person away from the bomber on her tram.
She described the moment the bomb went off, saying “I mean the bomb to me, there was no sound, there was no anything.
“You can imagine the time it takes to draw a breath, that’s what the experience was like.
“Suddenly everything around me went completely black, it wasn’t just the colour black, it was a tangible thick blackness that was engulfing my whole world…immediately I thought I must be dead.
Very sadly but a strange comfort was hearing other people showing their signs of distress because that meant ‘I’m not dead, I’m not in this alone, we’re all in this together and somehow whatever happened to us, we’ll come through’.
“We all banded together, those who had survived, those who were clinging on to their lives. Somebody had picked me up and placed me on what remained of a bench seat.”
Describing how she felt when she first looked down and saw her legs, she said, “I was trying to calm myself by saying, this looks far worse than it is.
My feet were perfect but they were severed at the ankle and the rest of the leg upwards from there was just sort of mash for lack of better words.
However, she added that she experienced no pain and used her scarf to wrap around both her thighs.
“I realised I had to lower my breath and really try and stay calm.
For me, that morning in those moments I was presented with a choice and that choice was given to me in two voices.
She explained that she heard the voice of life and the voice of death and she decided that if she lived she was going to devote her life to making a difference.
Hicks added that she was dead when she arrived at the hospital before being resuscitated:
I was gone for just over 28 minutes on arrival to hospital.
Speaking about how she has dealt with life since the incident, Hicks said: “I’m alive and that’s all that matters.
I would love to have my legs back but I’ve been forced to be slower and I get to see a lot more.
She added that she now always sees the positive in life.
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