A woman seriously injured in the Omagh bombing has told the inquiry into the atrocity how she frantically searched for her mother without realising that her own foot had been blown off.
Suzanne Travis, a 20-year-old student, had gone into town shopping with her mother.
"Little did I know that a lovely sunny day in Omagh all those years ago would turn into the worst day of our lives," she said.
She remained conscious throughout her ordeal despite being buried beneath rubble following the blast, with blood from a head injury blurring her vision.
When she pulled herself free of the rubble she saw two dead bodies beside her.
She then searched for her mother and said she was relieved when she saw her sitting upright in the middle of Market Street where she had landed after being blown through the air by the force of the explosion.
"I remember the word amputation"
It was only then, after meeting a friend, that she realised that she herself was seriously injured.
"I looked down and realised that I had lost my left foot. It had been completely blown off," she said.
A man she did not know put her into his car and brought her to the hospital in Omagh, from where she was transferred to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.
Shortly after arriving doctors told her that they would have to amputate her lower left leg. The student had to sign her own consent form because her parents were nor present.
"I remember the word amputation," she recalled.
"I remember them giving me the pen and the clipboard and then I remember signing it, scribbling on it."
She also suffered a variety of other injuries, which she described as horrific.
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It was not until the day after the bomb that she was told her mother had survived the blast, but had been very seriously injured, was in a coma and had been airlifted to Altnagelvin.
Due to the nature of her own injures she was not able to visit her mother until a week later after she awoke from the coma.
"I was wheeled up to see her and I remember her being in ICU and she was trying to reassure me that she was okay and I was trying to reassure her that I was ok," she recalled as her mother sat close by in the inquiry hearing room.
Determined not to let the bombers impact on her future plans she was able to continue the second year of her teaching degree at Liverpool University by studying remotely at home and with the help of university staff and friends who sent copies of notes she could not access.
Read more: Late parade start saved many children, Omagh Inquiry hears
"I really didn't want the bomb to take away me not continuing with my degree because I just looked at it as taking away so much already," she explained.
She returned to Liverpool in April 1999 and graduated with her classmates in 2001.
Since then, she has worked as a teacher at a school in Liverpool, but recently had to go down to two days a week because of the ongoing impact of her injuries including severe pain and infections, as well as PTSD.
She still experiences pain most days and is due to have further surgery to remove shrapnel later this month.
In her closing comments, Ms Travis said she will never forgive those who "left behind carnage, devastation and suffering" by their "cowardly wicked act".
