London bombings survivor meets her hero

Nov 1 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

LONDON Bombings survivor Lisa French has told of her emotional reunion with the "inspirational" hero who led her to safety after the devastating bus blast.

Lisa was travelling to a meeting in London on July 7, 2005, when she was redirected from an Underground station to a nearby number 30 bus service.

Unbeknown to her, once on the upper deck, she was sitting just inches away from a young man carrying a bomb that he would soon detonate, killing 13 people as well as himself.

To this day, Lisa, of Longbenton, North Tyneside, doesn’t have any recollection of the blast. But she does remember coming to afterwards, spitting out her two front teeth and noticing that the woman next to her had just woken up as well.

She then realised the bus no longer had any windows or a roof, and describes the scene that she saw immediately behind her on the bus as simply “horrific”.

While she cannot remember the blast, she will never forget the sight of Chris Symonds, the British Transport Police worker who came to her aid and guided her from the wreckage of the red London Transport bus wreckage.

Now, four years on, the 34-year-old has finally met up once more with Chris, a Falklands War veteran, after he was tracked down by producers from the BBC.

Lisa by London Bus

Lisa building a house in Cambodia

House being built in Cambodia

Lisa in a Cambodian minefield

Lisa at Pek house in Cambodia

Lisa in a Cambodian minefield

Lisa in a Cambodian minefield

Cambodian minefield sign

Cambodian minefield

Cambodian minefield

Chouk Mon and Lisa

Chouk Mon and Lisa

Finished house and MAG group

Pek, Lisa and Russ Godwin

Russ Godwin, Pek and Lisa

Group of volunteers at the finished house

Mines clearance team

Lisa sky diving

Lisa sky diving

Lisa and Chris Symonds

And in tomorrow’s edition of BBC 1’s Inside Out, viewers can watch their tender meeting.

Lisa said: “Those few minutes that he spent with us, looking after us, were inspirational. He’s an amazing man. When he first came up to me and the lady sat beside me, he introduced himself and showed us his ID badge - we were deaf from the blast so couldn’t hear anything - and he took us off the bus.

“I remember having this really pristine, clean and normal looking man telling me that everything would be okay and as he’d been through a similar experience, he was proof that it could be all right.

“He did some really clever little things to make us feel safe, like when he led us away.

“Instead of saying ‘we’re going to interview you down the police station’, he said: ‘Come on ladies, I’m going to take you for lunch in the police station’.

“Over the course of the next couple of hours, he was basically in command of the triage section set up in the station, and he organised getting trays of sandwiches and water bottles passed around. He was amazing.

“I tried to track him down several times, but he left the transport police and moved house. However, the Inside Out team wrote to every Chris Symonds living in London, and that’s how he got in touch.

“Meeting him again was amazing. It was like going on a blind date, I was so nervous, and I’ve told him he dare not walk out of my life ever again. He was an even bigger legend the second time around. I told him how he made me feel like the safest girl in the world. His new job at Network Rail sometimes brings him to Newcastle so we still keep in touch over email and we’re planning a night out and a curry soon.”