Manchester Arena Survivors Choir emotional meeting with 9/11 survivor in New York

Survivors of the Manchester Arena terror attack have travelled to New York to meet those caught up in the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.

The girls are part of the Bee the Difference research group, which aims to change the way young people are dealt with in the aftermath of traumatising events.

They are also members of the Manchester Survivors Choir, formed following the bombing in 2017, to support each other through the worst time of their lives.

Choir member Lucy Jarvis was badly injured and spent months in hospital. She said: "The choir's been a massive thing for all of us from such a young age.

"We all have someone to rely on in the choir. Being here together in New York is just so, so nice, it's very special."

As part of their journey to New York, the girls had an emotional meeting with someone who understands how they feel.

Tom Canavan was working in the North Tower of the World Trade Center when the plane hit on 11 September 2001.

He managed to escape, but was buried in the rubble as the South Tower fell. Four of those with him were killed.

The girls say meeting Tom, a fellow survivor who has been able to carry on, meant everything.

"Tom is so inspiring," Yasmine Lee said. "He has an amazing story and he's not afraid to share that with everybody.

"And he's living proof that you can get through something like that."

Tom spent years working as a guide at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum. His watch, which stopped at the time of the attack, is part of the exhibits.

He said: "I want them to know you're not alone, like what you went through, other people have gone through.

"One bad day doesn't mean your whole life has to be that way.

"I want to say to them - you're young, some of them were in tears downstairs, but when you come out here, you laugh, you go shopping - you're in New York and you're going to have fun.

"You learn how to deal with things."

In May 2022 several members of the Manchester Survivors Choir formed the Bee the Difference project, which aims to help young people affected by terror in the future, particularly their mental health needs.

It involves researching the experiences of young people following the arena attack through a questionnaire which the young survivors have helped devise.

The online survey, created by UK disaster response charity the National Emergencies Trust and Lancaster University, will be open until the end of October 2022.

The research is headed up by Manchester Survivors Choir founder Dr Cath Hill, herself a survivor of the Arena attack.

She was at the concert with her young son, who was 10-years-old at the time.

"These young people went through such a huge experience that changed their lives and their views about how we can speak about it correctly to young people are so important," she said.

"But nobody has asked them yet. We don't want to lose the voice of young people.

"If it happens again and young people are targeted, we may not have learned enough."

The Memorial and Museum were opened in 2014 and form a permanent tribute at the site where the Twin Towers once stood.

The girls were shown the story of how the tragedy unfolded, following Tom through the museum in silence, often holding each other for support.

A poignant display, on a large wall covered in blue squares, shows a quotation forged from recovered World Trade Center steel of famous Roman poet Virgil, which reads: "No day shall erase you from the memory of time”.

This is the museum’s promise to remember the almost 3,000 lives lost on 9/11 and in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

A Repository for the remains of those killed on 9/11 lies behind the wall.

Standing between the two footprints of the Twin Towers, it provides a dignified resting place for the unidentified remains of the World Trade Center victims, as work to make identifications continues.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York are responsible for the Repository and still, 21 years on, continue work to identify victims through their DNA.

Tom tells the girls: "Staff work every day and have been doing for years to try and help identify any small remains of those who died.

"For those families who have nothing to hold on to because nothing has been identified, they can come here and spend time."

Another member of the choir, 20-year-old Ellie Taylor, from Colwyn Bay, said: "You can kind of picture yourself in that scenario and relate what was happening to us and continues to happen to us.

"So what happened to all of them and I think it's, you know, quite hard."

The final exhibit is the 'Last Column'.

At 36 feet high, it is covered with mementos, memorial inscriptions, and missing posters affixed by those involved in the rescue and recovery work.

It was ceremonially removed from the site on 30 May, 2002, marking the official end of the nine-month Ground Zero recovery effort.

Cath, who also leads the choir, said it had been an incredibly emotional experience.

She said "I can remember being in London and hearing about 9/11 and kind of piecing all that together.

"We were all just people doing our own things on that day. I've really thought about the people here and being with Tom and him telling his story makes it even more kind of real."

And for Tom, 21 years on - he has found solidarity on the other side of the world - as important for him now as it is for the girls, just five years into their own journey.

He said: "I'm one of them now - I'm a Manc, I'm a bee, I'm a Manc bee - I can live with that!"

9/11: A timeline

On the morning of 11 September, 2001, 19 terrorists from al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial planes, deliberately crashing two of them into the upper floors of the North and South towers of the World Trade Center.

A third plane crashed into the Pentagon.

The Twin Towers ultimately collapsed because of the damage sustained from the impacts and the resulting fires.

After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back, and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania.

Every year on the anniversary of the attacks, six moments of silence are observed at these exact times:

• 8:46 am – American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower

• 9:03 am – United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower

• 9:37 am – American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon

• 9:59 am – South Tower collapsed

• 10:03 am – United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

• 10:28 am – North Tower collapsed

Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives on 9/11. Thousands more were injured.