A MOTHER from Otley killed in the Manchester Arena bombing moved apart from her friend seconds before the blast so they did not miss their children leaving the Ariana Grande concert, an inquiry heard yesterday.

Wendy Fawell, 50, headed to the arena exit doors with Caroline Davies to pick up her daughter, Charlotte, and Ms Davies’s sons, Ben and Lee.

As more people exited, the mothers separated and Mrs Fawell was approximately five metres away from suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, when he detonated his device at 10.31pm on May 22 2017.

The after-care club manager at a primary school died from a head injury, which was described as unsurvivable.

On Thursday, her final movements with Ms Davies – who survived the blast – were outlined as her mother, Julia Tiplady, and children Adam and Charlotte watched the hearing from home.

The inquiry heard Mrs Fawell loved her job and her children, who were “always paramount in her thoughts and deeds”.

She was described as a “fun person” and “the life and soul of a party” whose caring nature “meant she tried to mother everyone”.

Sir John Saunders, chairman of the public inquiry into the bombing, said: “Wendy Fawell loved children, not just her own but others that she worked with. Not only did she love working with them but she had a great talent for it and many children benefited from her care.

“She died as she lived, doing things for other people.”

Nell Jones, 14, from Goostrey, Cheshire, was also pronounced dead in the City Room and died from unsurvivable multiple injuries, the inquiry heard.

She attended the concert with a friend who recalled how much they both enjoyed the performance and were “singing and dancing from the very first song”.

They left the Arena after the final song and Miss Jones was walking towards the corner of the foyer when the bomb was detonated just two metres from her.

Her parents Ernie and Jayne, and her brothers Sam, Will and Joe, attended the hearing on Thursday along with the teenager’s cousins and her best friend.

The inquiry was told that every day was an adventure for Miss Jones who “lit up” her family with her youthful energy and passion for life.

Her mother remembers her daughter as a “beautiful girl, inside and out”.

Sir John said: “Nell Jones was a talented 14-year-old and on May 22 2017 she didn’t have a care in the world.

“She had a successful and happy life opening out in front of her. She had everything. She had very good friends and enjoyed life to the full, and made the best of everything.

“To lose all that is a tragedy and is so unfair. I can only say to her family, friends and all those who knew her and loved her, I feel for your loss.”

Meanwhile, the inquiry heard that Lisa Lees, 43, from Oldham, was waiting near to the Arena exit doors to collect her daughter, India, at the end of the concert.

A member of the public, Jolene Smith, said she saw Mrs Lees shortly after the blast at 10.31pm, the inquiry sitting in Manchester was told.

Counsel to the inquiry Sophie Cartwright QC said: “In her statement, she says she knew that Lisa had died."

“She states Lisa’s face was beautiful … Jolene Smith recalls that Lisa’s hair was lovely and her make-up was still beautiful.

“She said Lisa looked just like an angel.”

The married mother-of-two ran her own business providing aromatherapy massages to terminally ill children and children who were at the end of life.

She had ambitions to open a beauty salon where her other daughter, Lauren was going to work.

Mrs Lees died from multiple injuries which were unsurvivable.

The inquiry is currently looking at how and in what circumstances each of the 22 victims died and to probe whether any inadequacies in the emergency response contributed to individual deaths and/or if they could have been prevented.

Present at Thursday’s hearing were Mrs Lees’s husband, Anthony, her daughter, Lauren, her mother Elaine Hunter and her brother Lee Hunter.