When marketing manager Martine Wright heard that London had won its Olympic bid, on 6 July 2005, her first thought was: "How am I going to get tickets?" Having spent the evening celebrating, she spent an extra ten minutes in bed the next morning, and missed her usual train, say's Matthew Pinsent in The Times. Then there were problems on the Northern Line, which meant that, at Old Street, She had to either get a bus or take the Circle Line. She chose the latter, and - seeing a train about to depart - ran to catch it. It was the last time she would ever run. Moments later, Shehzad Tanweer detonated his bomb. "There was a white flash," she recalls.

"It felt like being in a Tom & Jerry cartoon and being hit in the face with a frying pan." When she came round, it was dark, and the only sound was of people screaming. Trapped by debris, Martine lost three-quarters of her blood. Both her legs had to be amputated.

But she refused to give up on life: over the next few years, she learnt to walk on prosthetic legs, got married, had a son - and took up sitting volleyball. Now, she is hoping to represent the UK in this summer's paralympics. This, she says, may be the path she is meant to be on, and she feels lucky to be there. "it's the biggest sporting event on Earth, and it's coming to the city where I was born," she told The Sun. "What Londoner doesn't dream of being part of it?"

Originally printed in The Week