Radio presenter Jeremy Vine paid an emotional tribute to 14-year-old Eilidh MacLeod.
He wrote on social media: “You look into the sparkling eyes of this girl and you wonder what lay ahead for her. Would she have become an immunologist and discovered a new vaccine?
“Would she have been a nurse and saved a life, or worked in a hospice and sat with a dozen people and held their hands as they faced their final days?
“Would she have been a supermarket cashier or bank clerk and changed someone’s day with a smile?
“Would she have been a mum who proudly watches her children grow and marry and then, decades later, in a worn armchair at home, looks at all the framed photos around her and contemplates with amazement how she became a grandmother of ten?
“What would her granddaughters have called her – Granny, Grandma, Nan? Would she have become a sportswoman or a writer?
“Would she have danced, or enjoyed long walks, or just sitting and reading by a log fire or on the beach? Might she have written poetry or an advertising campaign or gone into politics?
“Of course she did not need to become famous or successful or rich. She only needed to live.
“But she was murdered in Manchester on Monday at the age of fourteen. She was not even allowed to be herself.”
