Wendy Fawell

Wendy Fawell, aged 50, from Otley, West Yorkshire 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. 

Wendy Fawell had travelled to the concert with her friend Caroline, who was seriously injured, and their children.

Her family said she had been a “fun person” who “tried to mother everyone”, loved socialising and “loved her role of being a mum to Adam and Charlotte”.

Her mother Julia Tiplady said the after-school club manager was loved by all who attended it, “especially the girls with long hair, as they would go home with different plaited hair every day”.

Her daughter’s death had left those children “bewildered”, she said, adding: “The day I lost her part of me died. It’s a different world now without Wendy.”

Rest in peace Wendy. You will not be forgotten.