Mother of Manchester bomb victim shows supports for new counter-terrorism course at University of Cumbria
The mother of a man who died in the Manchester Arena attack joined students as they began a course in counter terrorism at the University of Cumbria.
Figen Murray - whose son Martyn was one of 22 people killed after an explosion at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017 - spoke of her sadness over the security measures at a concert she attended after the attack, and why more needs to be done to prevent atrocities in the future.
She told ITV Border: "I can't turn the clock back unfortunately, but this is really giving me hope that other families in the future will be spared what we're going through.
"A course like this is totally overdue, I'm so glad it's there because it's a fine balance to strike to offer security at events and make everything appear like we're in a police state and that's what nobody wants."
The course is training event hosts and security teams in terrorism prevention. It was in part inspired by Martyn's Law - measures Figen has been pushing, that would see more thorough security checks at venues.
She said she cried at the first concert she went to because no-one even checked her bag, so she has made it her mission to make sure we learn from what happened in Manchester that night.
Figen said: "We're not relying on the police because we're taking the very same people who train the police counter terrorism search teams to come and teach our students and our students are the people who will be looking after the people who will be coming to their concerts. They're private sector security officers."
The new course is based at the Ambleside campus at the University of Cumbria.
Robert Chandler, a student undertaking the training, said: "It is a massive pressure and I think whenever anything goes wrong and there's an injury on site or an incident of some form or in the worst case a death, you'll live with that for the rest of your life and you have to know that you've done your utmost."