Manchester Arena bomb completes 107-mile walk challenge

Chloe Allison walked 107 miles in the past week - the distance between her home in Cumbria and Manchester Arena

A Manchester Arena attack survivor who says she is scared of crisp packets being "popped" has completed a walking challenge for a mental health charity.

Chloe Allison was at the Ariana Grande concert in 2017 when Salman Abedi detonated a suicide bomb.

The 15-year-old from Lazonby in Cumbria said she now hates walking by herself and crowded places frighten her.

But she completed a sponsored walk to raise money for a mental health charity to mark the attack's third anniversary.

Over the last week Chloe has walked 107 miles - the distance between Lazonby and Manchester Arena - and raised almost £700 for Carlisle Eden Mind.

The Dean of Manchester led a live-streamed memorial service earlier to mark the third anniversary of the attack.

Chloe said people had panicked after the blast's "big bang", which happened five minutes after the lights went on at the end of a "brilliant" concert.

Chloe has been supported by the Manchester Resilience Hub which put her in touch with other survivors

Her mother Josie Foster was working on a school trip in Borrowdale in the Lake District and she could not call her until the early hours because she did not have a phone signal.

Chloe said the ordeal had affected her confidence, adding: "I get scared going out and walking by myself. When crisp packets go off that scares me - when people pop them in school or anywhere."

She added: "I want raise awareness of mental health issues which I suffered with since the attack and mark the anniversary by raising money.

"I was supposed to visit Manchester for the first time since the attack but I can't now because of the virus so I thought I would do a walk instead."

Over the last three years she has been supported by the Manchester Resilience Hub, run by Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, which put her in touch with others who had been at the concert.

She said: "I'm in touch with one girl and we Snapchat and talk and help each other deal with what happened.

"We talk about how we feel and help each other get through it around the times of anniversaries."