7/7 survivor and Paralympian: My mum dropped her tea when I revealed MBE

MBE: Martine Wiltshire
PA
Sebastian Mann10 June 2016

A Paralympian who lost both legs in the London 7/7 bombings has said being named in the Queen's Birthday Honours list is a "huge honour".

Martine Wiltshire, 43, was one of the last people to be pulled from the wreckage of the Tube at Aldgate.

Seven years later, she represented Team GB in the 2012 London Paralympic Games as a sitting volleyball player.

The mother-of-one was given an MBE for her services to sport.

Paralympian: Ms Wiltshire represented Team GB at London 2012
PA

She said: "It is a huge honour. My family are all hugely patriotic, so it is just an absolute honour to accept it.

"I am only here as a result of the support that I have had over the past 10 years.

"Through rehabilitation I found out about sport and I am now captain of the team."

She added: "I believe the power of sport has healed me, and hopefully I am an example of that.

"But I am not accepting this award just for me. I am going to accept for all those volunteers and all those people that helped put me together, and those that support the power of sport."

Mrs Wiltshire described being honoured as "surreal", saying that when she broke the news to her mother, she dropped the cup of tea she was holding.

Referring to her parents, she continued: "I don't think I could make them more proud, as a child. And to have Oscar, who is now six years old - he thinks he is going to meet the Queen, we will see what happens - he is very proud of his mum.”

Queen's Birthday Honours 2016

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After the bombing doctors told Mrs Wiltshire she had lost 75% of her blood and if it had not been for another passenger, off-duty police officer Elizabeth Kenworthy, who helped tie a makeshift tourniquet around one of her legs, she would not have survived.

Additional reporting by PA

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