WEDDING JOY FOR OMAGH VICTIM
Wedding joy for Omagh victim
By MELISSA KITE
A YOUNG victim of the Omagh bomb is to marry the English boyfriend who rushed to her bedside and maintained a vigil as she lay badly injured.
Sandy Smith, 23, had met Mark Blackwell from Lancaster only once before the atrocity on August 15 last year.
But 24 hours after the bombing, Mark was at her bedside in the intensive care unit at the Erne Hospital in Co Tyrone, where he kept a round-the-clock vigil.
And it was there he proposed to her on bended knee.
"I'd never been to Northern Ireland, but I just had to get to Sandy," Mark, 31, told Sunday Life.
"I grabbed one change of clothes and my friends lent me the money between them.
"I only intended staying for two weeks at the most. But I realised I loved Sandy so much that I couldn't leave her. I've been here ever since."
The couple met on holiday in Devon last summer and kept in touch by phone. As soon as he heard she was injured Mark caught a boat to Belfast.
Now they plan to marry on June 25 in Lancaster, exactly a year after they first met.
Sandy, who suffered massive shrapnel injuries and was left with her left leg paralysed from the knee down, said she hoped their story would give hope to other victims.
"It shows that love can conquer evil and that with the courage and the will to live, you can have a new future," she said.
"Mark has been my strength, he has encouraged me throughout to be positive and count my blessings."
Sandy's best friend Julia Hughes, 21, was one of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA bombing. The pair were standing together in Market Street just 10 feet from where the bomb exploded.
She said she has "cried buckets" every day since. One image which will stay with her forever is of a doctor crying as he worked to help the injured and dying.
Counsellors are helping her come to terms with the mental trauma.
"I am not the person I was before August last year," she said.
"I can't be my old self. I am always depending on other people to do things for me that I should be able to do for myself. It's very hard to get used to.
"I used to love the gym, now I can barely walk. But you have to accept it has happened and life won't ever be the same again.
"I've cried buckets full every single day. I'm still grieving for Julie. But you have to accept it is not the end of everything."
By MELISSA KITE
A YOUNG victim of the Omagh bomb is to marry the English boyfriend who rushed to her bedside and maintained a vigil as she lay badly injured.
Sandy Smith, 23, had met Mark Blackwell from Lancaster only once before the atrocity on August 15 last year.
But 24 hours after the bombing, Mark was at her bedside in the intensive care unit at the Erne Hospital in Co Tyrone, where he kept a round-the-clock vigil.
And it was there he proposed to her on bended knee.
"I'd never been to Northern Ireland, but I just had to get to Sandy," Mark, 31, told Sunday Life.
"I grabbed one change of clothes and my friends lent me the money between them.
"I only intended staying for two weeks at the most. But I realised I loved Sandy so much that I couldn't leave her. I've been here ever since."
The couple met on holiday in Devon last summer and kept in touch by phone. As soon as he heard she was injured Mark caught a boat to Belfast.
Now they plan to marry on June 25 in Lancaster, exactly a year after they first met.
Sandy, who suffered massive shrapnel injuries and was left with her left leg paralysed from the knee down, said she hoped their story would give hope to other victims.
"It shows that love can conquer evil and that with the courage and the will to live, you can have a new future," she said.
"Mark has been my strength, he has encouraged me throughout to be positive and count my blessings."
Sandy's best friend Julia Hughes, 21, was one of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA bombing. The pair were standing together in Market Street just 10 feet from where the bomb exploded.
She said she has "cried buckets" every day since. One image which will stay with her forever is of a doctor crying as he worked to help the injured and dying.
Counsellors are helping her come to terms with the mental trauma.
"I am not the person I was before August last year," she said.
"I can't be my old self. I am always depending on other people to do things for me that I should be able to do for myself. It's very hard to get used to.
"I used to love the gym, now I can barely walk. But you have to accept it has happened and life won't ever be the same again.
"I've cried buckets full every single day. I'm still grieving for Julie. But you have to accept it is not the end of everything."
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/189
Published Date: 25-Jan-99
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