Sheffield woman who died in Manchester Arena blast ‘was happiest she had ever been in life’

Kelly Brewster, 32, and her partner were planning to start their own family and had an offer accepted on a new house the day she was murdered in the bombing.

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A montage of photos set to music was played as parents and other family gathered at the public inquiry in Manchester to pay tribute to her during the ongoing commemorative phase of the hearings for the 22 victims of the attack.

Miss Brewster had been at an Ariana Grande concert with her older sister Claire Booth and another younger relative.

The elder sister to brother Adam, she had attended Norfolk Primary School, Sheffield.

After school, she started work at a solicitor’s office, moving into her own home aged 21.

Only five feet tall, she was known as the ‘pocket rocket’ and combined a passion for music and travelling the world, with regular month-long trips abroad.

Miss Brewster met her partner and ‘soul mate’ Ian Winslow in 2014, who had his own daughter from a previous relationship – and the pair were planning their own family together.

On the day she died, the couple had an offer accepted on a new home and were preparing for children.

She had ‘longed to be pregnant’ and had begun choosing baby names.

“Kelly was the happiest she had ever been,” her family said in a statement read by legal representatives.

“We have been robbed of Kelly’s future in the cruellest, most barbaric way.”

The inquiry heard Kelly’s mother Kim is heartbroken and her father, Kevin, has suffered a heart attack and a stroke.

Mr Brewster regularly takes the train to sit in Victoria Station, ‘where he feels closest to Kelly’.

The family statement ended: “We will never be able to get over our loss or be able to move on from the May 22, 2017.”

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi murdered the 22 victims and injured hundreds more after detonating a home-made bomb at the foyer of the arena on May 22, 2017.

The public inquiry is expected to last into next spring.

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday morning.

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