As Manchester comes to terms with the horrific terror attack that rocked the English city to its core, a hero has emerged, and now years after becoming estranged, his mum is reaching out for help.
Seconds after the bomb went off at the Manchester Arena on Monday night, 33-year-old homeless man Chris Parker rushed to help a badly injured little girl and fatally injured woman in need of assistance.
“Everyone was piling out, all happy and everything else,” Parker, who had been standing inside the arena as the doors opened, told The Guardian. “As people were coming out of the glass doors I heard a bang and within a split second I saw a white flash, then smoke and then I heard screaming.”
Initially, Parker says he was knocked to the floor but within seconds instinct kicked in and he ran to help a little girl whose legs had been blown off.
“I wrapped her in one of the merchandise T-shirts and I said ‘Where is your mum and daddy?’" Parker said.
After helping the little girl, Parker then moved onto a woman who had serious head and leg injuries, who later died in his arms.
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"She was in her 60s and said she had been with her family," Parker told reporters fighting back tears.
As the story of Parker's heroism made its way around the world, Jessica Parker suddenly realised the young man on the television was her estranged son, who she has not seen or spoken to in many years.
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