i'm rogerjohnson. and i'm annabel tiffin. manchester remembers. a year on from the arena terror attack, the lives of the 22 victims are commemorated. as much as it is a day of remembering, it is a day of celebration. celebrating what manchester stands for and what the people stand for. we won't be beaten. survivors of the atrocity tell us how they are determined to live life to the full and defy terrorism. when you're faced with a life or death you often start to reflect. i've seen the end, and i don't want it to be for nothing. the unsung heroes. remarkable stories from those on the front line 12 months ago. and three special choirs remember three special friends in a poignant moment of remembrance. this time last year,

thousands of people — many of them children — were excitedly making their way to the manchester arena to watch ariana grande in concert. four hours later, in an act of senseless violence, their lives changed forever. 22 people died that night — the youngestjust eight years old. and hundreds of others were badly injured in a devastating terrorist attack. in the days which followed, people came to manchester to pay their respects to the victims. the response from around the world was overwhelming. today, the city has once again come together to remember those who lost their lives.

a vigil will start here in albert square shortly, and events have been taking place across the day, as stuart flinders reports. everybody stopped. at 2.30pm, shoppers and shop assistants stopped. and notjust in manchester. two of those who died were from south shields. mps stopped. this was liverpool. blackburn. the didsbury mosque in manchester. in st ann's square, the minute's silence ended with a cheer. there were cheers too for prince william, arriving for a service

at manchester cathedral days after performing duties of an altogether different kind at windsor. the prime minister and other political leaders were there too. other guests arriving for the service knew more than most about what happened a year ago. we were in the foyer, and we went back, and we were five or six feet away from the actual bomb. so you we re away from the actual bomb. so you were all very lucky? yes. during the service, prince william read from the bible. and if i have all faith to move mountains but do not have a love, i am nothing. manchester's jews and muslims, sikhs and hindus were represented here too. united in our common grief, we

prayed to god by many names. not everybody hurtle bereaved were in the cathedral today. many have decided to stay at home, marking the anniversary privately and quietly, but this is a chance for the whole city to show its feelings one year on. even those not directly involved sensed today was different. it's a strange day, because it's a normal day and an abnormal one. it's good that everyone is here and it is busy and they are carrying on but it is a tough day. the police were everywhere. people had to feel safe in manchester today of all days. as much as it is a day of remembering, it'sa as much as it is a day of remembering, it's a day of celebration, celebrating what manchester stands for and what the people stand for. you didn't have to be at the cathedral to make your feelings known. myro coates from prestwich helped paint more than 200 manchester bees to raise money

for the emergency fund. there are a thousand ways, it seems, to show you love manchester. the city's needed a bit of love in the past year, and today there was plenty of it around. stuart flinders, bbc north west tonight, manchester. roger and i were in separate parts of the city centre during that silence, but no matter where you were you could hear a pin drop. this event this evening is about song, music and defiance but we can never forget the 22 who lost their lives. we have never been beaten and we won't be beaten. music. music continues.

as well as the 22 that died, hundreds of lives were changed forever and for them the physical and mental scars may never heal. katie walderman has been to meet two people who were at the concert. we have never been beaten and we won't be beaten. because, you know, we're manchester. we're the north. there something about us, something inside us. adam had been at the concert with his best friend olivia when they were caught in the blast. i broke both my legs, seven teeth, nearly lost my right eye. regained vision thanks to

the amazing doctors. nearly lost my tongue. not a lot to it, really. i mean, there is, but i don't like to complain. in total, he was hit by 20 pieces of shrapnel. and although he survived, he has had to come to terms with the fact olivia didn't. what was she like? he sighs. beautiful. i suppose that's an all—encompassing word. notjust how she looked, but how she was. she was kind, funny, you know, talented. she was just a beautiful person, in and out. do you think your outlook on life has changed since it happened? yes. that very night, when you're faced with a life or death situation, you often start to reflect a lot on how your own life is. i've seen the end. i don't want it to be for nothing. i have seen this end once,

i don't want to see it again without feeling complete. so i decided that night to do what i want to do. and i want to open up a barber shop, i want to be an entrepreneur. i want to make my money my way. but if i could go back in time, i'd change everything. but i can't say, what i am going to do is i am going to try with my best life. but while survivors like adam come to terms with their injuries, for many others, the scars are not so visible. you never think it's going to happen to you, so when it did, it was like, how do i deal with it? what do i do now? jenny was 19 at the time of the attack and had been at the concert with her younger cousin, jodie. they both escaped unhurt, but their aunts, waiting for them in the foyer were seriously injured. straightaway when i got home i said, mum, i'm going to have to have some help to get over this, and i think it was mainly because i'd

sat for four hours thinking that both of my aunties had died. it definitely took its toll on me, that and then for the next six weeks, having to watch them fight for their life hospital, it was a lot to carry on your shoulders, and you do think if i had not been at the concert, it wouldn't have happened. jenny, who runs a donkey sanctuary, has since been diagnosed with ptsd. it's just the fear of it happening again, and i can't go anywhere public, and i don't want to go anywhere because i'm so scared that i'll forever be in that situation again, and if i do happen to go out anywhere, i'm shaking and i can't catch my breath. but she's found comfort in her animals. the donkeys, obviously, they come here with trauma and that is what we have gone through, so you can definitely relate with them on why they feel so scared in certain situations, but it's nice to see their progress, and in a way, we are making that same progress by helping them. it's thanks to them that

i think i'm doing so well. last year's attack may have changed both adam and jenny's lives, but both say it will not define them. just two of the people who were at the concert last year for whom life will never be the same. we have moved from the centre of albert square where we will talk to somebody, and fought two other people who are watching tonight, have every reason to be grateful for. this man helped to people who we re for. this man helped to people who were injured last year, and usman, explain what happened last year and the effect it had on you. obviously the effect it had on you. obviously the attack happened and i was working at the arena in the day and on the night. we absolutely did not have any clue that it was a bomb or

that anybody was injured, and i was on the opposite side of the arena andi on the opposite side of the arena and ijust ran with the crowd near to the stadium doors, and my manager stopped me and said, stay here, tell eve ryo ne stopped me and said, stay here, tell everyone to calm down and exit slowly and not panic. we evacuated the arena and walked out to the right, just where the stadium doors were, and my supervisor came out and told me, has anybody got first aid training? my first instinct was to run through the doors and help. you found a couple of people who were bleeding and you helped them and they survived. it has had a big effect on you though, hasn't it? definitely, i will not look at life the same as before the attack. it has changed my mind set a lot. i feel like i'm under a lot of pressure when i'm around a lot of people like this, but i feel it's a really important message i need to

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there's kids in there, and parents, somebody‘s got to help them. it wasn't my life, that wasn't of importance to me, as long as hannah gets out alive, that's my priority. she is my sister. she grabbed hold of my hand and she did not know where her children were and she was begging me to find her children. this is the story ofjust three among the many who became heroes that terrible night. these images of people fleeing the arena were seen around the world. in the very centre, sistersjessica and hannah mone from cheadle. hannah says her sister saved her life. she had been blown off herfeet by the blast and suffered serious injuries to her hand and arm. i actually believed hannah's hand had been blown off. so i grabbed her hand upright and ijust dragged herand i said, "we have to get out."

you mean, your priority at this stage was simply to save your sister's life? get her out of there? i had come to the acceptance that out of the two of us, it's hannah that needs to get out of here alive. because i was convinced at the time there might have been a second bomb. she was amazing, just the way she thought about getting us both out, and her military mode, i called it. it was like walking into a real horror film, or a war zone. darren buckley was at the arena with his autistic son that night. but rather than run to safety, darren made sure his son was ok before going back to help injured strangers. what we had were the t—shirts, the merchandising t—shirts. so we grabbed a load of them and started using them as bandages. at the end we ended up using posters to cover over the deceased. because that's all we had. why did you decide to stay in the building and help people rather than get you and your son out as quickly as possible?

to me, it looked like everybody was running the opposite way. radiographer amanda martin works at the royal bolton hospital. she is accustomed to dealing with some nasty injuries but it wasn't only physical scars which faced her on that night. they were telling us what happened, what they had experienced, what they had seen. the radiographer bit was the easy bit, that's what we do every day. the psychological bit was difficult. so presumably the radiography took second place to being a kind of impromptu counsellor to those people? we had to respect what those patients had been through and if they needed to talk, they needed to talk. darren says he is still haunted by what he saw. do you regret staying and helping? i could never regret staying. if it happened again, i would do it again. do you think you are able to help those patients by listening to them talk? i would hope so. they wanted to talk to us and we let them talk. jess is a film student and has documented her sister's progress. i got hit with shrapnel. it has proved a cathartic process for her and her sister.

just looking back at the footage, i can accept how different i look. i'm a lot stronger and i'm a lot more positive. much has been said about manchester's resilience in the face of what happened, but on the night it was the resilience of individuals which made all the difference. iamjoined by i am joined by councillor eddie newman who was lord mayor of manchester until last wednesday, and you took over as lord mayorjust five days before the attack. we were both here the night after and it's a very different atmosphere this evening. it is a different atmosphere. the evening after the 22nd of may, it was a very sombre crowd. people had come in and there we re crowd. people had come in and there were as worries about what might happen in the centre of manchester

but people were defiant, united and angry, but they felt they needed to show that people in manchester would not be cowed, and most of all they needed to show their solidarity with the people who had been struck down and their thankfulness for the emergency services. so it is a different kind of crowd this evening. there is a celebration of manchester. but people still haven't forgotten that this might be the anniversary, especially for the people coming here, but for the people coming here, but for the people and relatives and the injured, every day they remember. that's right, it's notjust one day for them. we will be hearing from some special quires making their way in to my two will be singing special songs, and they are made up from people all over manchester. how do you feel about all of these people arriving tonight, a lot of them very young, very young families? yes, i think the people of manchester,

young people and their families have come here this evening and they want to show they are all part of one manchester. we are code easier band united and we have solidarity with the people affected by events year ago —— we are solid and united. the people affected by events year ago -- we are solid and united. how did affect you? it defined my time as lord mayor of manchester and a few days before i made a speech talking about cohesion and diversity with the individuals in manchester and the attack made that seem so important, that we needed to choke as the people of manchester have that we will be defiantly united —— we needed to show. we will never forget the people who were struck down, we are a strong city. councillor newman thank you for joining us this evening. as counselling newman mentioned —— as

counselling newman mentioned —— as counselling newman mentioned —— as counselling newman mentioned it was the strength of community which helped manchester through some of its darkest days last year. people from all faiths, all backgrounds and all nationalities came together in an amazing show of solidarity. the manchester bee became a symbol for hope and unity. st ann's square was the focal point for people to pay their respects to the victims and 12 months on floral tributes are once again being laid. beccy barr is there for us now. just a few hundred meters away from albert square, and here in the shadow of the church, this is a place that we saw the focal point a year ago for manchester, who came together, the people of manchester together, the people of manchester to pay their respects. they laid thousands of bouquets and paid tribute to the people killed and injured and it was a real message of solidarity. i2

injured and it was a real message of solidarity. 12 months on, it is a similar situation as it is the centre of a real outpouring of love for manchester. the theme is very much one of love and of togetherness. in the trees of hope, people have written messages to hang on these trees, so let's hear some of the messages from people earlier day —— earlier today from manchester. i think manchester, there is no place in the world like this and no place in the world like this and no place in the world like this and no place in the world where people come together like this. manchester for ever. we are like a