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Telegraph
25-05-2025
- Telegraph
I'm still friends with the woman I saved in the Tunisian beach attacks
When crazed gunman Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire on unsuspecting tourists enjoying the sun in a luxury Tunisian beach resort, those who weren't shot before they could escape, ran for their lives. Yet for holidaymaker Allen Pembroke, the thought of leaving injured people on the beach wasn't an option. After ensuring the safety of his wife, he returned, running towards the horror, not away from it. That selfless decision would save the life of Cheryl Mellor, who'd been shot and lay badly injured on the beach. Her husband, Stephen, was one of 38 victims gunned down that day on June 26 2015 in the ISIS-inspired attack that remains one of the deadliest Islamist attacks in recent history. Thirty of the victims were British. Cheryl survived, thanks to the bravery and calm actions of Allen, then an NHS volunteer first-responder from Essex. Two years later, in 2017, he received the Queen's Commendation for Bravery. But nearly a decade on, Allen, now 71 and working part-time at a university after a successful career pioneering the first electric cabs in London – brushes off the title of 'hero' with typical modesty. 'Given the same set of circumstances – god forbid – I'd do it again,' he says . 'I didn't want the exposure it brought. I just can't stand injustice or people being hurt.' Sense of unease Allen and his then-wife Tracy had holidayed twice before at the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse. They deliberately avoided the school holidays to enjoy the resort at a quieter, more affordable time. At the start of the holiday Allen had tipped the staffer in charge of the sunbeds so he could bathe near the front of the beach each day. But something didn't sit right as the holiday neared its end. 'The previous day, I'd said to Tracy, my ex-wife, 'what's he doing?' because the sunbed guy was looking up and down the beach, ducking under umbrellas. His behaviour was really unusual. I'm sure he must have known. 'Now, he wasn't there at all. None of the locals were. 'The vendors who sold fake glasses and cheap tat on the beach had disappeared. 'Every day the Police were up and down the beach, either on their lovely Arab horses or on their quad bikes. You could set your clock by it. Bear in mind this was day six of seven and we'd been there twice before. 'I just did not feel comfortable.' That feeling proved tragically accurate the next day. A war zone 'My gut was screaming at me that something wasn't right so when I heard the first shot, I knew it was gunfire. I grabbed Tracy. She said 'It's fireworks'. I said, 'No it's not' and we started to run. 'The bullets were literally whizzing over our heads. They were so close to us you could hear the sound and people were screaming. I could see the gunman with his weapon as I looked over my shoulder but it was for such a brief moment. It was such a blur.' As others ran to safety, Allen made sure Tracy was secure in their room – then did something few would have dared. 'I threw Tracy into the room and stood there for five or ten seconds and thought I knew I could help,' he recalls. 'I said to Tracy 'I'm going back out'. She said, 'no you're not'. I told her, 'Just stay there, lay on the floor, lock the door, don't open it,' and then I ran from the room before she could say anything else.' By now, the resort had become a nightmare. 'As I was running back towards the incident there were still people running off the beach but unfortunately, by then, there were deceased bodies on the beach. I started crawling around in the sand on my belly, looking for life. There was blood and bodies everywhere. It was like a war zone. 'I was trying to feel for a pulse but no one was alive. Then I touched this one woman and she sort of murmured. Her face was covered in sand and her hand and forearm was about two metres away from her body, detached. It had been blown off completely. 'I asked her, 'Do you speak English?' My name is Allen. I'm here to help,' she replied, 'yes I'm Cheryl.' I told her, 'I'm here to help you'.' Life-saving skills Cheryl had suffered devastating injuries and lost a critical amount of blood. But she was alive – and she could speak. Allen did what he could with the meagre supplies he could find. After pouring water over her face and giving her a drink, Allen found a scarf which he wrapped her arm up in and, seeing she had a badly injured leg, he wrapped a towel around that too. To Allen's horror and disgust, as he helped Cheryl he saw a local going through the bags of dead holidaymakers and screamed at him to leave. 'The whole time Cheryl was saying, 'check my husband. Check my husband Stephen'. 'She was laying flat, I was sort of kneeling next to her and I could see he was on the other side of the sunbed and unfortunately I could see he'd been shot several times and he hadn't survived. 'I jumped across after I'd helped her to look at him. I said, 'do you really want to know?' She said, 'please tell me.' I replied 'unfortunately, he's gone.'' Knowing the gunman was still nearby, Allen improvised again to protect her. 'I told her I was going to carry her away from this point but she didn't want to leave. So I told her she needed to 'play dead'. I tipped some sunbeds over there and threw debris over her. 'By then the guy was by the swimming pool and moving onto the main body of the hotel where he was shooting and grenades. It seemed like an eternity at the time even though it was probably 15 to 20 minutes.' Returning to the hotel room, Allen was hit by another shock. 'I went back to the room I'd left Tracy in and I was banging on the door but she wasn't there. She'd left a note which said she was scared and that she'd gone to reception where I later found her.' Time is a healer Time, Allen says, has helped him process what happened. 'I've had, in the past, a few dreams about it but I compartmentalise things,' he explains. 'I've always been very good at sort of putting things in boxes and closing the lid and that's exactly what I did. I buried it.' He and Tracy never returned on holiday together. They have since divorced. Despite the trauma, Allen says he never needed counselling – and didn't seek compensation. 'There is one thing that sticks in my mind from that day – the sight of one of the bodies – but out of respect for the relatives I won't go into detail. I've never taken a penny in compensation, nor would I.' He takes some small comfort from the fact that extremist Rezgui, a 22-year-old electrical student, was shot dead by police that day – despite wishing the police had done more to help the victims in the first place. He says: 'I am glad he was killed because he would have gone to court otherwise and I don't know what the penalties are in Tunisia, but if that had been the UK he'd still be alive with his colour TV, cigarettes, getting his conjugal visits – all paid for by the taxpayers, of course.' What does linger is anger – particularly towards TUI UK, the tour operator. Like the families of many of the victims, Allen believes they were responsible for safety and security breaches at the hotel, which the company has always denied. After the attack, they settled with some of the families out of court, reaching a settlement 'without admission of liability or fault'. Allen insists: 'TUI abdicated all responsibility and for that, I feel they have blood on their hands. Had TUI intervened and told people there had been another incident shortly before at a museum people would have had a choice as to whether to go.' Ongoing friendship His friendship with Cheryl, however, remains intact – and deeply meaningful. He says: 'For the first two or three years we would ring or text. 'I find a lot of peace in riding my motorbike and last summer I drove down to the south of Cornwall to have lunch with her. She sent me a lovely, very personal, letter. It was absolutely wonderful and one that I will cherish and keep forever. 'We always send a Christmas card. We will never forget each other and I'm sure we will remain friends but time does heal.' In a new documentary on Prime Video called Surviving The Tunisia Beach Attack, Allen – one of several survivors who share their stories – reads out that very letter. 'You put your own life at risk to come and help me and my husband, even though shots were being fired,' Cheryl writes. Allen downplays it all. 'I wish I could have done more.' Though retired from the NHS, after losing colleagues and relatives during Covid, Allen hasn't stopped helping others. Just six weeks ago, he crossed traffic in his car to shield an elderly woman who'd fallen into the road. He then waited three hours with her for an ambulance to come. His sister, he says, calls him 'a cat with nine lives'. 'Only, she tells me you've probably already used about seven,' he jokes. 'She says my job in life is to help people.' And what about luck? 'I don't see myself as lucky in the sense that I've not ever won the lottery or anything. I just don't think it's my time yet. I think there's a lot of good to be done in the world but I don't want anything out of it. 'I'll never return to Tunisia – there are too many other places to see and the Police and locals didn't do enough to help – but I intend to do a lot more travelling on my bike.' As for that fateful moment on the beach, he says: 'People always ask me 'Why did you go back?' Well, it was just instinctual, I suppose. I went back because it was the right thing to do but the real heroes are the ones like Cheryl. She saw her husband shot, pulled through and was able to go back to work.' Surviving the Tunisia Beach Attack, Prime Video, May 25, produced by Yeti Television
The Sun
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I looked ISIS terrorist in the eye as he slaughtered Brits on Tunisia beach…bittersweet twist of fate saw me cheat death
HAVING survived a terror attack that claimed the lives of 38 people, including 30 Brits, Sharon Simes wondered what else life could possibly throw at her. The ISIS massacre - at a Tunisian beach resort nearly a decade ago - saw the biggest loss of British life to terrorism since the 2005 London Tube bombings. 18 18 18 18 But today - having been diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer after already fighting off the disease once before - Sharon, now 53, says that, far from leaving her defeated, she has found even more resilience to move on with life. 'I just kept thinking, 'If I can get through a terror attack, I can get through cancer.' When I got cancer again, two years ago, I thought the same again,' she exclusively tells The Sun. 'I see myself as lucky because I'm still here.' Sharon's ordeal began on Friday, June 26th in 2015, while on holiday at the five-star Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba - a luxury beach resort near the city of Sousse in Tunisia. She was there with husband Dave, daughter Krystal, then 17, and Krystal's friend Chelsea. Lounging beside Dave on a sunbed, glass of wine in hand, Sharon was reading her book when her peace was shattered by what sounded like fireworks. But it wasn't fireworks - it was gunfire. The attacker, 23-year-old Seifeddine Rezgui, disguised as a tourist, had smuggled a Kalashnikov rifle inside a parasol. He stormed the beach and hotel grounds, executing holidaymakers in what would become one of the bloodiest terror attacks on Britons abroad. In an upcoming Prime Video documentary - Surviving The Tunisia Beach Attack - which hears from survivors and retells the horrors of that day using real-time video footage from the resort, Sharon recounts the moment she first realised what was happening. 18 18 18 She says: 'Out of the corner of my eye I saw a super bright flash of light - like lightning. I just turned to it and it was the terrorist. 'Dave and I both went down at the same time on the sand and the terrorist was firing at people and he was standing there right in front of all the sunbeds. 'The sand was just jumping around because of the bullets. 'It was chaos. I just thought I was going to die any second.' Krystal, meanwhile, had been in a different part of the complex, poolside with Chelsea. In the chaos, she and her friend ran into the hotel and hid in an office - the very same one Rezgui stormed next, hurling grenades and spraying bullets. Unaware of her daughter's whereabouts or fate, Sharon and Dave sprinted from the beach to safety. But she'd left her phone behind, and couldn't recall Krystal's number when another holidaymaker offered to help. Miraculously, Sharon, Dave, Krystal and Chelsea all escaped alive. When the family was reunited, the relief was overwhelming. But the emotional scars lingered. Sharon admits: 'If I had got the seat I wanted - on the front row of sunbeds - we wouldn't be here because I intended to sit where another family who died were.' That family was John and Janet Stocker, from Crawley, West Sussex, who tragically left behind five children and ten grandchildren. 18 Lasting impact Back home Sharon was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, general anxiety disorder and mild depression. 'I've not been able to go to a big resort like the one in Tunisia again,' she says. 'Even hearing sirens from a police car brought it back.' She attended various counselling and psychotherapy sessions, including two support groups organised by tour operator TUI. She says: 'It gave me an outlet to talk about what had happened outside my daughter and partner and it taught coping mechanisms that I've used since, when I'm not feeling too brave, but it's not a magic wand - it's never going to take what happened away.' Krystal opted to stay close to home, studying locally in Canterbury. Sharon says: 'I changed a lot as a person. We used to go away every year. I'd take Krystal and a niece on holiday. 'I could not do that anymore. I felt I couldn't physically be responsible for another person on holiday again. It really impacted my family life.' Then, in 2019, life dealt another devastating blow. 'I was laying in the bath and, completely by chance, I saw a dent in my top left breast because the bubbles were going into it in a funny shape,' Sharon recalls. 'I Googled what I'd noticed when I got out and found another woman who discovered she had breast cancer in similar circumstances, but I thought breast cancer was a lump. I didn't realise it could be a dent. 'I looked in the mirror and just thought, 'Oh my God'.' 18 18 Her GP urgently referred her for a scan, and she was placed on the two-week cancer pathway. In April 2019, Sharon was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ in both breasts with invasive ductal carcinoma in the left breast - the most common type of breast cancer that occurs when abnormal cells form in the lining of the milk ducts and then invade surrounding breast tissue beyond the ducts themselves. She underwent a double mastectomy, followed by breast reconstruction using tissue from her stomach, and was prescribed hormone therapy for five years to suppress recurrence. Silver lining Yet even amid the trauma, Sharon saw the silver lining. She says: 'I felt lucky because some people didn't make it in Tunisia, and some people don't make it with cancer. "I've got to be there to see Krystal become a paediatric nurse and to enjoy other milestones I might not otherwise have." That May, just before surgery, she even managed a trip abroad. She says: 'The only time I have ever plucked up the courage to go on a plane since Tunisia was to L'Escala in Spain that May - the month before my mastectomy. 'I said to the surgeon, 'It's taken me all these years to pluck up the courage to go, so I need to do it, even more so, now.' 'I think my overall attitude was, and still is, 'Do what you like to me, but leave my daughter alone!' I also wanted to make the most of every moment I could.' 18 18 18 By 2021, two years into her recovery, a lump appeared in one of her reconstructed breasts. Tests revealed fat necrosis - a benign condition where tissue dies due to lack of blood supply, often following surgery. But Sharon, who works as an administrator for the NHS, remained uneasy. When she moved to the Isle of Wight in 2023, she was passed to a new breast care team and brought up her concern with a new consultant. She says: 'Again the scan revealed fat necrosis. But the radiologist said there was just a niggle that something was not right because there was blood fluid underneath the fat necrosis. 'They thought it could be a haematoma. So they agreed to a biopsy this time, even though it looked fine.' The biopsy revealed a second cancer; HER-2-positive invasive lobular carcinoma, a far rarer and more aggressive type of breast cancer that develops in the glands that produce breast milk. Unlike ductal cancer, which forms lumps, lobular cancer spreads in sheets and is notoriously harder to detect. HER-2-positive means the cancer cells carry a protein that promotes growth, making the disease faster-spreading. She says: 'It was tough because the cancer was back and I was thinking, 'How is this even possible after a double mastectomy?' 'Also, I was on hormone therapy which is supposed to stop it from coming back, but then I was told it was a different type. It was just so confusing to hear.' Sharon underwent a lumpectomy in July 2023, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy, spaced three weeks apart. She also began 18 rounds of immunotherapy — a targeted treatment for HER-2-positive cancer — and underwent a course of radiotherapy. Finally, in May 2024, an MRI scan showed no remaining signs of the disease. She now requires annual scans and lives with a hole in one eye - a possible lasting side-effect from her treatment. 18 18 18 'Protector' Through it all she has drawn strength from a curious source - butterflies. To this day Krystal believes her mum has a spiritual protector. On the day of the Tunisia attack, Sharon wore a bikini covered in butterflies. Since then they have appeared at key emotional moments - always bringing a sense of peace. Krystal feels they are so significant that she has had several tattooed on her body. Sharon reflects: 'I definitely believe in something watching over me I guess. 'Whenever I'm in a situation where I'm feeling uncomfortable, I ask myself, 'What's the worst that can happen?' and it already has, so I know I'll be OK. 'I guess I'm still in survival mode because I've done so much research into cancer to try to keep alive these past few years. 'I guess, in a sense, I've been in survival mode for nearly ten years now. 'But I hope that, by sharing my story, I can encourage others who've gone through any kind of trauma to know that there is hope, and to gain something positive from my journey.' Surviving The Tunisia Beach Attack, produced by Yeti Television, is on Prime Video From Sunday May 25th. 18 What are the signs of breast cancer? BREAST cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK. The majority of women who get it are over 50, but younger women and, in rare cases, men can also get breast cancer. If it's treated early enough, breast cancer can be prevented from spreading to other parts of the body. Breast cancer can have a number of symptoms, but the first noticeable symptom is usually a lump or area of thickened breast tissue. Most breast lumps aren't cancerous, but it's always best to have them checked by your doctor. You should also speak to your GP if you notice any of the following: a change in the size or shape of one or both breasts discharge from either of your nipples (which may be streaked with blood) a lump or swelling in either of your armpits dimpling on the skin of your breasts a rash on or around your nipple a change in the appearance of your nipple, such as becoming sunken into your breast Source: NHS
