My Story of How I Survived the 2005 Terrorist Attack on Sharm el Sheikh.

And how buying a bottle of drink instead queuing for taxi saved my life.

This story is written by my Mum, Jenny, and it was originally written for my printed publication Bad Mum.

I remember exactly where I was when I found out my Mum was in the middle of a terrorist attack and all I could do is watch it unravel on the news like everyone else.

I was on holiday with my boyfriend at the time and his family, we were staying in a caravan and the news came on the TV. I remember shouting, ‘My Mum is there!’ and everyone tried to comfort me by asking if I defiantly had the right place and could I be mistaken but I knew.

I grabbed my phone and began to ring my Stepdad Bill to find out what he knew and if he had spoken to my Mum. He hadn’t heard from her, and my heart sunk.

My Mum was in the middle of what felt like a movie and all I could do is watch it just like everyone else was.

This is her story.

I was used to going on holiday to Egypt as my partner Bill was a keen Egyptologist and we went at least once a year. Sometimes, we went twice a year, so I am used to the language, the people, and the customs of Egypt.

The Egyptian people are friendly, kind, and happy most of the time, they appreciate their work, families and home life is especially important to them. Most of the people are poor and it is the men that work in the hotels and bars, occasionally a woman could be found in a hotel lobby selling crafts.

In July 2005, my daughter asked me to go on holiday with her to Sharm el Sheikh and we had a wonderful time sunbathing and meeting other people in the hotel, most of them were young kids learning to dive as the hotel had a dive pool and they practiced in there. We got friendly with a couple at the hotel and went out for drinks and a meal with them.

One night near the end of the holiday, there was a party on the roof of the bar of the hotel. We both wanted to go, and it was a great atmosphere, but some of us decided to go into Sharm and find a club or bar.

We walked around Sharm, but there wasn’t a lot going on, the clubs were empty so we thought we would buy some alcohol and go back to the hotel.

As we walked towards the taxi rank, we heard a loud boom and it sounded like fireworks, the ground shook and I thought straight away it was an explosion of some kind.

We stopped and bought the drink from a shop and there was a second explosion, and we could see the yellow smoke as it wasn’t far from us. It was the taxi rank that had been bombed and there was panic everywhere.

A guard from a hotel nearby told us to go inside his little room and I dived under a table, we all piled in terrified. I knew this was a terrorist attack and we were in the middle of it, I was shaking and crying as most of the women there. After a while, we decided to try and get back to the hotel, we knew we had to try, but we didn’t know if there were any more bombs ready to go off.

I went outside and people were running everywhere with terror in their faces, I will never forget it. I locked eyes with a young guy and we both knew what was happening, it felt like an age, but it was probably only a few seconds.

I hope he got home safely.

We started walking to the hotel which was a few miles outside Sharm, I saw an ambulance carrying dead bodies in the back, families with young children were running, trying to get to safety. It was like a film except I was living it and all around me is panic and screaming, I didn’t look back where the taxi rank was as I couldn’t bear to see the carnage, I just grabbed my daughter and started walking.

People were fighting over taxis, there were a few around that didn’t get blown up, so it was head down and walk. We started walking down the main road when I saw the minibus from our hotel, they had come out to find us.

I cannot tell you how relieved I was to see them and how brave they were to drive into town with all the danger. We all piled in, and no one spoke during the drive back, there were cars burnt out on the roadside, it was a disaster area. We all got back safely to the hotel where everyone was in the lobby, some on their phones trying to talk to their families about the bombings.

I was in complete shock back at the hotel, someone made me a cup of tea and the staff were trying to find out who was missing. Eventually we went to our rooms, but I couldn’t sleep, my mind was racing, and I realized that we were close to being a victim of the attack.

If we had not stopped at the shop to buy the vodka, we all would have been at the taxi rank where the bomb went off. Even now I think about it, it makes me scared how close we were and that we all were ok.

The next day we all sat around the pool and more information was coming out about the attack. It became clear it was carried out with a lot of thought of how to cause maximum damage and terror. A lorry packed with explosives rammed the gate of a hotel and drove into it, that was the first explosion we heard. It completely blew away the front of the hotel and I found out about a couple that used to drink in our pub, their son was in the hotel at the time, and he woke up to find his room was blown apart, but luckily, he survived but his friends did not.

There were several bombs detonated on the promenade by the sea front, in the old town of Sharm and the market square was blown up. The day before we had gone into the old town and the men sat around playing board games, I dread to think how many lives were lost there that day.

I believe eight bombs went off that night, one of the hotels near the bars was turned into a morgue, I don’t know how many people died but it must have been a lot. The Egyptian government played it down because they didn’t want it to affect tourism, usually that is the aim of the terrorists, to stop people coming to the country. It is so sad though because places like Sharm El Sheikh rely on tourism to keep it going.

I went back there years later, and it was very quiet, and bars were charging soaring prices for drinks and taxis were charging almost double too.

I still think of Egypt as a beautiful place, and I have many wonderful memories I will hold onto forever.

If you or anyone else has been in a similar situation and would like to talk or share your story, please get in touch. Terrorist attacks are pure evil but the more we stick together, share our stories, and show how strong we are the more we will always be winning.

Love to everyone that lost a loved one in the Sharm attack.