7/7 10th anniversary: Ipswich dancer’s passion for her art helped her overcome tube blast trauma

Crystal Main, the day after surviving 7/7

The 33-year-old from Ipswich was injured in the tube carriage at Aldgate where she was sitting with dance partner Bruce Lait, only feet away from suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer.

Miss Main said: “It (dancing) got me through the deepest and darkest days. You lose yourself. It’s a place where I can forget all my worries.

“It was my tonic that helped he through all the bad days.”

Although comforted by her love for dance, Ms Main it has not shielded her from the effects of being in the carriage where seven lives were destroyed and so many others changed forever.

“Even now things remind you of it such as when you watch a TV programme or a film, or sometimes hearing sirens. It does bring it all back.

“I can’t say each week I think about it. It got to a point where each day I thought about it less and less.

“I believe things happen for a reason. I feel very lucky.”

However, although now counting her blessings Ms Main said it was not always easy.

“I had a bad car accident three months afterwards and was unable to do anything for three months. I felt it was my punishment for surviving. For a long time I felt guilty. I felt terribly guilty.

“I am lucky I have people around me. My friends and family are so loving. I couldn’t bear to be without them.”

In an interview with this newspaper the day after the bombings Ms Main recalled how she and Mr Lait survived the blast.

Ms Main said she believed she would have been killed had other passengers not shielded her from the lethal impact.

Ms Main said: “I was really tired. I closed my eyes and put my head against the glass.

“All of a sudden I felt as if I was having a fit and couldn’t control myself. I slipped to the side. It was as if I had been electrocuted and thousands of volts were going through me.

“I pulled myself up to sit straight. My face was really sore. I slowly opened my eyes and it was dusty and foggy and black. To start with I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t see anything.

“I couldn’t see much, just shapes in the carriage. The carriages in front and behind had lights.

“I looked around and there was a woman lying on top of Bruce and against the top of my shoulder.

“A woman standing in the middle of the carriage had her feet next to mine and was lying over my lap and down where the glass panel was originally.

Ms Main recalled hearing sounds of distress from the woman next to her. After a few minutes she died.

She said: “Everyone was shouting and screaming for help. It seemed ages before anyone came.

“When paramedics got there I was one of the last ones left. There were metal rods wrapped round all of us.

“When I got out it was not too bad.

“My hands were black and covered with blood all round my nails. It was horrific. I was just so scared. If I had sat anywhere else or stood up I don’t think I would be here today.

Ms Main was treated in hospital for cuts, smoke inhalation and loss of hearing.

The women who fell on top of Ms Main and Mr Lait were subsequently identified as Carrie Taylor, 24, of Billericay, and Fiona Stevenson, a 29-year-old lawyer from Little Baddow, near Chelmsford. Both women died.