27 August 2024, 08:09 | Updated: 27 August 2024, 08:39
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A ten-year-old girl who survived the Southport stabbing attack has told LBC she wants to raise money to support the air ambulance charity that saved her life.
Luna-Rose was one of eight children and three adults who were injured, along with three girls who were killed, in the attack last month on a Taylor Swift dance class in the Merseyside town.
She was flown to hospital suffering severe blood loss, and was given several blood transfusions to keep her alive. She has undergone multiple surgeries since then.
Luna said she wants to set up a charitable foundation to support the air ambulance charity that took her to hospital and the Ronald McDonald House (which provides accommodation nearby to hospital for parents).
She added: “I received multiple blood transfusions and immediate major life saving surgery to repair internal damage and sadly I lost my spleen and will be on life long medication twice a day, after a lengthy stay in critical care I’ve required further operations also.
“When I was in hospital there were little things I noticed and thought if I had a charity I could raise money and help improve these things.”
Luna’s family have set up a fundraiser for the foundation, which has already raised nearly £7,000 of its £10,000 target.
Read more: King Charles meets families of three girls killed in Southport stabbing
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Luna’s mother Hannah said her daughter “wouldn’t be here, plain and simple” without the air ambulance.
“She would not have made it to Alder Hey [children’s hospital], we were told that point blank,” she said.
“When she got to hospital, she didn’t have a drop of her own blood left. They couldn’t find a blood group. It was only the fact they can offer blood transfusion on air ambulance is what has allowed her to even reach a hospital.”
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She added: “We couldn’t even express our gratitude for for them. It was the East Midlands that turned up for us and to know that they are charity-run, and they are literally the lifeline for, you know, many, many people, it’s unbelievable that… it’s not well more known that they are charity-run, and we really want to get behind them.
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“For that reason, they’ve changed not just our family’s lives, but our extended family’s lives, so many people in the community that knows Luna… if it was a different end, then it would have rippled through.”
She added: “We’ve really not long been back from hospital, Luna’s had to go back in for further treatment, skin grafts on one of her arms.
“She’s obviously having quite a lot of flashbacks and, as everyone, her imagination is running wild with ‘what-ifs’, what could have been, so counselling has been really important, and the support of the community. It’s been unbelievable.”
Hannah said she was airlifted from the scene with Luna, with no money, no phone and no way of getting back to Southport.
“I was kind of stranded an hour’s drive away from home, and they offered complete support,” she said.
Hannah added that as well as the air ambulance, they had help from a charitable counselling service whose volunteers drove from Hull.
Luna herself has had several skin grafts on her arms, and recently had to go back to hospital for more surgery.
She said that although her injuries are “getting better” it “feels like you’re taking a step backwards sometimes”.
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Luna said: “I’m ready for the recovery journey and but it feels like you’re taking step backwards sometimes, because on Friday, I had to go in for another surgery. I get on my arm and a skin graft, and its’ like, I was okay getting up the stairs.
“I still wasn’t really good at it, but because where they’ve took the skin through my leg, it’s making it hard, you know, to walk.”
Despite the attack, Luna managed to go to a Taylor Swift concert and was even invited to meet the singer.
She said: “It was really good. I was a bit nervous being out of the house and everything for the first time but it was good, and she was really nice.
She added: “You could see when she was telling like, about what happened, she was getting upset, so she obviously must care for everyone… it was just crazy. I was just in so much shock”.
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Hannah told Luna at one point that she might not be able to go to the concert because of her injuries.
Luna said: “I was really annoyed, so I got up and I showed everyone how much I could dance and how good I was, and I started walking around…
“So I just got off and shared with everyone how good I was at walking and stuff and dancing, and that kind of proved the point of it.”
Luna’s step-dad, Lee, said it’s been a rough period: “It’s been pretty tough for her. When she was in the hospital recovering she was talking about helping other people, asking how the others were doing, and that’s how she is.
“We talked about how people were helping us in hospital and the support we were getting from charities and the community, and the charity that we’re setting up is something that can help other people. It’s a positive thing to come from a bad situation.”
To donate to the fundraiser click here.
