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October 19, 2010

Martine Wiltshire lost both of her legs in the Aldgate Tube blast July 7, 2005. Since her major operations, she is now a star paralympian aiming for the gold medal as a member of the British women's volleyball squad for 2012, reports London Evening Standard.

Her accomplishments were praised by England's Lady Justice Hallett.

"You are a triumph of the human spirit over dreadful adversity. I wish you every success in the paralympics and the very best of luck in 2012,” she said at the High Court inquest.

Wiltshire, whose name was Martine Wright in 2005 prior to her marriage, arrived in court in a wheelchair, but bravely walked to the witness box on her prosthetic legs. She told the court how the terrorist attack had caused her to lose three-quarters of her blood supply, and that she needed many major operations to recover her ability to walk.

She thanked another passenger, off-duty policewoman Elizabeth Kenworthy, who saved Wiltshire's life by wrapping a tourniquet around the gaping wounds in her legs and offering compassion.

She recalls the frightening image of her blood covered sneaker dangling from a jagged piece of metal just above her head.

She was on the train because she was late to work as a marketing manager. She chose the same train-car that suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer had also chosen.

“I was reading my paper and I remember a white light in front of my eyes and a feeling of being thrown from side to side,” she said in court. “I did not pass out but I was swung 90 degrees. I was still in my seat but I was facing the end of the carriage.”

She became trapped in debris with her head resting on Andrew Brown who was also fated to lose both legs.

"He started talking to me and asking me if I was all right. I could hear screams from around me,” she continued. “There was a hole in the side of the carriage and I could see a man from London Underground talking to me through the hole. I just kept saying: I'm Martine Wright, tell my family I'm OK.'

“I could not understand how passengers with their bags were able to walk away. I was surprised there was nothing wrong with them.

“A lady with long blonde hair [Kenworthy] came into the carriage. She gave me a tourniquet and told me to wrap it around my left leg. She held my hand and moistened my lips with water. I know in my head she saved my life.”

Since her operations, Wiltshire taught herself to walk and has since become a star athlete on the British Paralympic Volleyball team going for the gold in 2012.

The Aldgate bomb was one of four detonated by the terrorists which claimed 52 lives and injured more than 700 people in July 2005.

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