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The second series of We Can Change The World is here and you can listen to even more inspiring young people who are aiming to make a positive change to the world around them. In one of the episodes presenter Isy Suttie is joined by Freya Lewis who shares her journey since the Manchester Arena attack on 22nd May 2017.

Freya was 14 years old when she attended the Ariana Grande concert with her best friend and was just three meters away from the attacker that evening. In this podcast, Freya speaks about her very personal journey following her time in hospital and adjusting to life back at home.

Having spent 5 weeks in Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Freya underwent more than 60 hours of surgery and had to learn how to walk again – all whilst battling both physical and mental injuries whilst coming to terms with losing her best friend.

Freya has since made it her mission to spread positivity, raising an astonishing amount of money for the hospital which saved her life and championing the NHS. Freya is now looking to the future to see what else she can do to help make a difference to the world around her.

Freya remembers waking up in hospital in a lot of pain – she had 29 separate injuries from the attack including two broken legs, a broken arm, severe burns and other internal injuries. She spent 5 days in an induced coma and a week in intensive care at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

In the podcast, Freya talks about seeing how the people of Manchester came together in the aftermath of 22nd May:

“We were in a little bubble. It was like we were cut off from a lot of things. My parents and my sister went to St Ann’s Square and they showed me pictures of it. I just remember being in shock because, all of the balloons and the flowers and everything, there was so much of it… I was just used to my four little walls in my ward, so it was strange thinking about all that was going on outside.”

Freya’s Dad set up a blog to keep friends and family up to date with her progress. The blog became extremely popular as people from further afield started to keep track of Freya’s progress. So much so Freya and her dad decided to set up a fundraising page and attach it to the blog. People from all over the world started donating to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital – reaching £20,000 by the time she went home.

Ariana Grande visited Freya in hospital; “She came in, I cried, she cried and she held my hand and she was the loveliest person I have ever met… I really do not know how she did that.”

During her recovery Freya was helped by her friends, family and the NHS staff who went the extra mile to get her through big milestones along the way:
“The physios and OTs made a chart which was Freya Lewis’ steps to home chart – covered with Harry Styles because I was obviously expressing my love for him in hospital!”

She had to learn to walk again, use stairs and complete different tasks to make sure she would be able to manage when living back at home. She explained that ‘with Harry as motivation, they soon got ticked off the list.’

Freya returned home to continue her recovery and later went back to school for the first time since the attack. She wanted to find another way to raise more money for the hospital that made returning to school possible. Her Dad signed up for the Manchester 10K and suggested she signed up for the Junior Run. When Freya started training she was still recovering and learning how to do things that people generally take for granted.

“Suddenly I was training for a run that I didn’t really want to do, but I think it was the idea of raising so much for the hospital because I thought about how much I’d raised so far and how much more I could raise.”

“I was thinking the whole way around… I had to think who I was doing this for… so if I could give anything back I should try.”

One year on and Freya was joined by her whole family and friends to do the full 10K run.

Now Freya has completed all of her surgeries, she continues to look at ways to spread her positivity, love of the NHS and living life to the full; including speaking at the NHS 70th celebrations, speeches for the High Sheriff of Greater Manchester and pursuing her dreams to be an actress.

Freya has helped to raise more than £60,000 for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and she says that will continue:

“I’ve always said, ‘til the day I die, I will continue to raise for the hospital because I owe them a lifetime of fundraising”