Manchester Arena Attack: How survivors are using their horrific experience to create something positive

Today, Sunday May 22nd, marks five years since the devastating Manchester Arena attack.

As concert-goers streamed out of the arena in the wake of an Ariana Grande concert, a suicide bomber detonated a homemade device, claiming the lives of twenty-two people – many of them children – and injuring hundreds more.

The unprecedented attack was the UK’s worst terror attack since the 7/7 bombings and, today, still stands as one of Manchester’s darkest days.

But out of the heartbreak, devastation and sorrow, Liv’s Trust was born.

One of the people to die in the attack was fifteen-year-old Olivia Campbell-Hardy, a talented teenager from Bury with the dream of one day becoming a music teacher. 

Liv’s Trust

In the wake of her death and struggling to come to terms with the tragedy, Olivia’s dad Andrew Hardy and her grandparents Steve and Sharon Goodman channeled their grief into the launch of a fundraising charity in her honour, which they later christened Liv’s Trust.

Staying true to its motto, ‘We Choose Love’, the foundation is dedicated to Olivia’s passion for the performing arts, and funds education, music and dance for under twenty-fives across Greater Manchester in the hope that others can achieve the dreams Olivia once had.

And, in the near five years since its launch, Liv’s Trust has not only helped countless people achieve their dreams in the arts, it has given Olivia’s grandad Steve a reason and a drive to carry on each day.

Speaking to Proper Manchester, Steve said: “Liv’s Trust gives me a reason to get up every day, and to keep working for it.

“Sharon and I are struggling a bit with the anniversary coming up, but the charity is helping us to have a bit of focus, and helping us to take our minds off of things.”

Liv’s Trust

Since its launch, Liv’s Trust has helped people through a variety of different means, whether it be with the financial costs for teaching qualifications or by funding music lessons for schools and for children with additional or behavioural needs.

It has also contributed to travel costs for dance schools to take pupils to competitions, and has even paid for individual people to compete and fulfil their dreams, including one young woman with a dream to play the clarinet.

The woman, a student at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), had her travel costs to London covered by the charity, which enabled her to eventually achieve her dream qualification.

Now that student has her Masters degree in the Clarinet and is teaching music, ‘just like Olivia had wanted to’, Steve noted.

And more recently, the trust extended a helping hand to a young Ukrainian refugee by arranging breakdancing lessons, a hobby he had pursued back in his home country before Russia’s invasion.

Steve explained: “After he moved into our community, someone asked if we could help him get some dance lessons here so he can continue with his training… It’s helped him massively with settling into our community and his new life.”

Though Liv’s Trust wouldn’t be where it is today without the help of its patrons and ambassadors, who all work tirelessly to keep Olivia’s legacy and memory alive.

One of those ambassadors is sixteen-year-old Amelia Thompson, a Derbyshire schoolgirl who survived the devastating attack on that fateful night.

Amelia was invited to the launch of Liv’s Trust and, after meeting Steve and Sharon became the charity’s ambassador where, for nearly five years, she has tirelessly raised money for the cause – last year, she even took part in a charity skydive, raising over £1,400 for the trust. 

Speaking of what the charity means to her, Amelia said: “I think it’s so important to continue being a young ambassador because it’s so important to carry on Olivia’s legacy and to keep the memory and the spirits of the twenty-two alive.

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“People should never forget the lives that were lost that night.”

Five years on from the attack, Amelia admits that while she still struggles, Liv’s Trust has helped with her recovery and treatment.

She explained: “It does get hard around this time of the year and around the anniversary. It plays on my mind a lot more than it usually would. 

“But Liv’s Trust has definitely helped me with my recovery, and doing my own fundraising for the twenty-two has helped massively, too.

“It’s trying to make something positive out of something that was so so negative.”

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On the future of Liv’s Trust, Steve added: “We just want to keep on how we’re going and keeping it family-run.

“We never expected to be as big as we are, so to be able to help hundreds of people the way we have has given us that reason to get up in the morning.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to help somebody, especially in a way that was close to Olivia’s heart.”

For more information on Liv’s Trust, its mission and how you can get involved, visit its official website here.