Manchester Arena bombing soulmates’ love lives on through charity for talented youngsters
SOULMATES Liam Curry and Chloe Rutherford had their whole lives planned out.
They were going to move in together this year and take their first foreign holiday as a couple.
Next year they hoped to marry and within three years become parents.
Tragically they will never be able to do any of those things because Liam, 19, and Chloe, 17, were two of the 22 people who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena suicide bomb attack on May 22 last year.
Tuesday marks the one year anniversary of the atrocity at the Ariana Grande concert and today, in a moving interview, their parents reveal how they will spend the day remembering the “perfect couple”.
Liam’s mum Caroline told us: “We will concentrate on the joy they brought into the world. We have become one family, just like we would have been when they got married. We know that would make them so happy.”
Holding Caroline’s hand Chloe’s mum Lisa added: “They were the perfect couple and had their entire future mapped out.
“They were so excited about moving in together this year and taking their first foreign holiday together to Spain to celebrate Chloe’s birthday in August.
“Two years later they were going to get married then two years after that they said they would have children.
“They were so mature and in love we were absolutely certain they were doing the right thing.
I truly believe they were destined to be together
Chloe’s mum, Lisa Rutherford
“We feel fortunate they had already experienced and achieved so much during their lives.
“They had the type of love most people spend a lifetime searching for and were completely inseparable.
“I truly believe they were destined to be together. They were so similar we sometimes get confused which one we are talking about.”
The couple, who had been together for three years, had huge dreams.
Chloe, who was studying music at Newcastle College and had auditioned on X Factor, wanted to be a singer or a music teacher and Liam, who was studying sports science at Northumbria University, loved playing cricket.
Both worked part time at the Hilton hotel in Gateshead, where a special ball will be held in their honour next month.
Their dreams were cut short by the terrorist who targeted innocents leaving the concert.
This week police revealed that more than 800 people are now known to have suffered physical and psychological injuries after the bombing.
Speaking from the Rutherfords’ home in South Shields, South Tyneside, where the walls are adorned with heart-shaped photographs of the couple, the mums explained they did not want to talk about the extremist who committed the atrocity.
Caroline said: “We want to concentrate on Chloe and Liam and all the joy they brought into the world — and the legacy we can build for them now.”
Lisa added: “Chloe had been a huge fan of Ariana ever since she appeared on the American TV show Victorious.
“She couldn’t believe it when she found out she was playing a concert so close to home. She was very excited to see her perform.”
The families now want to look to the future, and are devoting their own lives to helping the stars of tomorrow.
They have set up the Chloe and Liam Together Forever Trust to provide support to talented youngsters as they explore their passions in music and sport. Lisa explained: “Liam and Chloe’s dreams were stolen from them before they could make them come true. They were born to be together and we want to do everything we can to ensure their love lives on for evermore.”
Chloe’s dad Mark, 47, a former confectionery worker and Lisa, 47, a former banker, have joined forces with Caroline, 47, to run the trust.
They have also helped Caroline cope with the loss of both her son and his dad, Andrew, who died of cancer, aged 49, just a short time before the attack.
Lisa said: “After Liam and Chloe died we were overwhelmed with how many people contacted us offering to raise or donate money in their honour.
“Even strangers were messaging us saying they wanted to do something. We wanted to do something with all that generosity and the idea for the trust came to us almost straight away.
“So we are raising money to help promising musicians and athletes of any age.
“The amount we donate varies but we are already helping a talented ballet dancer with his tuition fees and we are also funding a talented archer so he can buy the equipment he needs.
“The dream is that one day we will help someone perform at a West End show in London, or compete for a gold medal at the Olympics.
“We are trying to help the stars of tomorrow realise their goals and do the things my daughter and Liam would have liked to do. We’re in a position that the kids are never forgotten and although their ambitions were torn away from them, somebody else’s children will hopefully be able to fulfil their potential — and that’s because of Chloe and Liam.
“Chloe had such a pure and beautiful voice. She loved singing and would perform at events all the time.
“She would have loved to have been on the big stage one day but she also wanted to become a music teacher.
“That’s why we really want to turn this terrible tragedy into something positive.”
On Tuesday hundreds of locals in South Shields will wear the trust’s colours of pink and blue as they gather next to the permanent memorial bench in the couple’s honour next to the Town Hall.
Mark said: “It’s hard to describe what we’ve been through. There are days when you don’t want to get out of bed because you feel you have got nothing to get up for.
“Sometimes you don’t want to leave the house and you can’t do anything but sit and cry.
“But the trust has given us the strength we need to carry on.
“It’s become a full-time job dealing with everything that goes with it and we know that Liam and Chloe would be so proud of us for what we are doing.
“That is what keeps us going and what makes it worth getting out of bed in the morning — knowing that despite this tragedy we can bring some good into the world.”
- The Sun on Sunday has not paid the families for the interview but has made a donation to the trust.
Help to tackle terror
A BRAVE band of terror attack survivors are calling on the public to help them combat extremism.
The group, which includes people caught up in the Manchester Arena atrocity, say more must be done to “take on the evil” that has claimed so many lives.
In an open letter, members including Becky Rigby, 35 – the widow of soldier Lee Rigby, who was murdered on a London street in May 2013 – issue a clarion call on how to stop the extremists before they strike.
The group say: “With just two days to go until the anniversary of the Manchester Arena attack, which also marks the murder five years ago of Fusilier Lee Rigby, we would like to ask the public, as well as honouring those we have lost, to think about how you can become part of the solution to terror.
“We are a group of survivors of terrorism. Some of us were injured ourselves, others have lost loved ones. In all cases, the scars of those moments are deep.
“As we know from our own experience, terrorists have targeted the innocent regardless of faith, ethnicity or politics, for generations.
“Our members have lost loved ones to nationalists, Islamists and far-right extremists.
“What binds these extremists together is not any particular belief.
“It is the hatred of people not like them and the willingness to use violence against innocent civilians.
“It is this we must take on and defeat. When terror hits, we all feel an impotent rage. We all want to help the victims and take on the evil that drives the attacks – but how?”
The letter is signed by more than 40 relatives of terror victims who have lost loved ones to groups including IS and the IRA.
Signatories include Dan Hett, whose brother Martyn, 29, died in the Manchester Arena attack, and Gina Van Dort, 32, who was shot in the face and lost her husband Chris Dyer, 32, in the Tunisian beach attack of 2015.
Their aims include:
- Refusing to give terrorists the notoriety they crave,
- Helping the victims of terror attacks,
- Getting social media organisations such as YouTube to shut down hate sites,
- Challenging hatred wherever the public sees it.
The letter adds: “Hatred is the sea terrorists need to swim in. If we take on that hatred, we dry up that sea.”