Olivia Campbell-Hardy

Olivia Campbell-Hardy, aged 15, from Bury, Greater Manchester was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing.

On 22 May 2017, at approximately 10:31 p.m., Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old British-Libyan man born in Manchester to Libyan parents, carried out a suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena in England at the end of an Ariana Grande concert. 

Abedi, a UK citizen who had recently returned from Libya, detonated a TATP-based nail bomb packed with shrapnel in the City Room foyer, killing 22 people (including children) and injuring 1,017 others (239 with physical injuries). 

His younger brother, Hashem Abedi (also British-Libyan), helped source materials and coordinate the attack from Libya; he was later convicted in the UK of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to cause an explosion, receiving a life sentence with a minimum term of 55 years. 

Olivia Campbell-Hardy was at the concert after being given a spare ticket by a friend on the day.

Her father Andrew Hardy said she had been a “daddy’s girl” with an “infectious smile”, while her mother Charlotte Hodgson described her as her “princess” and her “shadow”.

Olivia had been “born with a twinkle in her eye” and was “full-on” from the minute she woke up until she went to sleep, her father said, adding that “music was her life” and she had performed at the Manchester Arena and auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent. 

Her mother said “Ollie” was a “funny kid” who “will always be in my heart”. “She told me she was going to be famous one day and get a house in New York, and she wanted me to have a big house and a cleaner to do my ironing so I could have a break.”

Rest in peace Olivia. You will not be forgotten.