After witnessing first-hand the terrorist attack in Manchester, a teenager from Bagillt has decided to raise money for the victims.

Nicole Birch, 15, and fellow St Richard Gwyn High School pupil Lauren Davies were among the 20,000 fans at the Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Area two weeks ago when a suicide bomber killed 22 and injured at least 59 people.

Nicole, 15, is now planning a zipwire challenge and a walk up Moel Famau to raise money for the victims, their families, and the emergency services.

She said she witnessed something “no-one should ever see” and could not possibly imagine what the families of the victims are going through.

Nicole said: “I couldn’t help people at the time so I want to do something to help them now and to say thank you to the emergency services for what they did.

“We heard the blast go off and my first instinct was that it was a bomb, but my friend Lauren was reassuring and said it was probably a smoke bomb like they have at football matches.

“It wasn’t until a group of girls came back from the foyer screaming that we realised what had happened.

“We were locked in the arena for what felt like forever.

“There was smoke everywhere when we came out.

“When we came outside, we looked to our left and saw a girl covered in blood who was being helped by people.

“At that moment we didn’t know what to do and we just ran to go and meet my dad.

“We didn’t cry until we got back into Flint to drop Lauren off, which was when my dad read out an article saying what had happened. We couldn’t believe it.

“For a few days I just didn’t stop crying.”

Nicole will be taking on Snowdonia’s Zip World, the longest zipwire in Europe and the fastest in the world on June 25 to raise money for families, hospitals, and the emergency services.

She also has plans to walk up Moel Famau, near Mold, to raise as much money as possible.

Nicole’s mum Lindsey said her family are “really proud” of what her daughter is doing to help those affected by the terrorist attack.

She added: “Nicole just feels she is so lucky and that she owes it to everyone involved to give something back.”

To donate visit www.just
giving.com/crowdfunding
/nicoleelise-birch.

A benefit concert at Manchester’s Old Trafford cricket ground was held yesterday to raise money for those affected by the blast.

Ariana Grande joined Robbie Williams, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and One Direction star Niall Horan.