Parents of Manchester Arena bombing victim Saffie-Rose Roussos write book sharing memories

ITV News

23-04-2025

The parents of Saffie-Rose Roussos, who was the youngest person to die in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing following an Ariana Grande concert, have written a book to share how they want their daughter to be remembered.
Speaking on ITV's Loose Women Andrew and Lisa Roussos shared their memories of their daughter, who was one of 22 people who were killed in the attack, with more than a thousand injured.
Andrew told hosts Coleen Nolan, Judi Love, Penny Lancaster and Myleene Klass, 'Where do I start? Larger than life character, beautiful, stunning' and later added: 'She had this thing with people where she would capture everybody, even if she was here she would capture everybody, and she would make sure she would do that even if you don't pay her any attention… It doesn't matter where you went with her, she was just people's magnet. She was just such a bundle of joy."
Andrew and son Xander went to pick up Lisa and their two daughters Saffie and Ashlee from the concert and recalling the night of the attack he said: 'We heard something, I wasn't quite sure what it was. I thought it was a metal board or a fight breaking out because we were literally facing the train station so there were actually a good few people there.
"We heard this noise and there were people, children screaming hysterics but again, I thought it would be some sort of trouble at the train station. Didn't think anything of it… But even if there is a fight, you've got to be careful and then the next minute, all hell broke loose and there was just hundreds of thousands of people screaming, hysterical. But again, we didn't know what was happening, we thought fight or something.'
He continued: 'Amongst the chaos, two ladies stopped where we were parked and I managed to speak to them and they said they don't know, 'Balloons went off, a bomb went off, we don't know'. So I was like, 'There can't be a bomb in Manchester at a kids concert' and it was just unfolding in front of us and it was screams and children running and confusion.
'Then I know that Lisa, Saffie and Ashlee are at the concert and I need to go and look for them but at the same time, I've got an eleven year old son so I'm taking him into danger but we don't know what it is.'
Andrew explained: 'We turned the corner, just 20 yards from where we parked and then it became real. Everyone was injured on the floor, the first thing we spotted was Ashlee injured on the floor so then it was real then.'
Lisa, who was leaving the concert, added her memories of the moment bomber Salman Abedi struck: 'Ashlee was leading us out because she knew the venue, I'd never been before, and she was quite ahead of us leading the way.
"I got Saffie's hand and my arm was outstretched, she was pulling me because she wanted to get out to see Andrew and Xander and the next minute, I just hit the floor with a thud and that was it.
"I tried to move and couldn't, all I could move was my eyes, I couldn't speak or do anything but I do remember thinking, it's some sort of explosion.'
Realising how 'severely injured' she was in that moment she explained: 'Strangely enough I did, couldn't move an arm, a leg, nothing. I lay there thinking, Ashlee was ahead, 'Hopefully she's got ahead' but Saffie was close to me so then I'm thinking, 'If I'm this bad, then how's she? She must be injured as well'.'
Following the explosion, Lisa was in a coma for eight days and Andrew had to tell her that Saffie had died at the age of eight. Andrew said: 'I can't [imagine], even sitting here, I can't. So many things happened between that night and that day that it was pending, it was coming and I was dreading it.
'It was horrendous… Again, when we wrote the book we spoke about, if you're badly injured and in an induced coma and somebody comes out of there, it's a joyous moment where someone is getting better but I'm waking this person up to tell her the worst news ever.'
Andrew went on to discuss their grief, saying: 'This is something we discussed along the days in the hospital with the surgeon because we were very much involved with the decisions that they were making, the decisions about waking Lisa up or not, sort of informing Lisa, her recovery.
"So we all had a plan to do that, they were asking me questions like, 'Knowing Lisa, would she want to be woken up and told? Or would she rather just be where she is now in an induced coma?' Me knowing Lisa, she would want to be informed what's happening and get her mind open but it's something… What do you say?'
Penny Lancaster told the couple 'It's obvious Saffie's positive energy lives within you and your family', to which Andrew and Lisa agreed before Andrew said: 'There's been moments… We had to learn a lot.'
Crediting each other, and their family and friends, for helping them, Lisa said: 'I think it's really important to have people around you that you love and trust, very important.'
Andrew explained that he had met Ariana Grande after the attack and said: 'It was something I needed to do as a father because she was getting a lot of negative press at the time and I thought it was unfair.
"It's amazing how you speak throughout the years and 'I can't believe you met this superstar' but that didn't mean anything to me. It was more, 'What would a young 21 year old, it doesn't matter who she is, feel [after] what happened?'.
'I literally grabbed her by the hand and sat her down because she was [hysterically] crying and I just wanted to let her know what Saffie meant to her, that what she did was nothing wrong and it wasn't her fault.'
Explaining how they want their daughter Saffie to be remembered, Andrew said: 'We live our lives with Saffie with us, we've bought a house, bought all her stuff with us, we've got her bedroom there.
"We don't use it as a shrine, people come and stay, our granddaughter comes and takes all her slippers and bunny ears…'
Lisa added : 'She was such a bundle of energy, that you still feel that.'
Andrew told the host that: 'She's our oxygen. We're here now doing this for her, we're her voice. It's a coping mechanism and it does take time to comprehend that but you've got to move forward with them.
"She would have achieved a lot of things in her life.' to which Lisa added: 'We don't want her to be remembered because of what happened because she was so much more than that.'