Somebody knows the cowardly scumbag behind the Manchester terror attack and they MUST work with the police – us Northerners are tough and together we will stand strong

I WOKE this morning feeling confused.

As per usual, I woke to a stream of news alerts on my phone, but this time they were talking about an attack in an arena in Manchester.

I tried to work out where in the world Manchester was, thinking there must be a place by the same name somewhere else on the planet, assuming it was some far flung place.

After switching on my TV, the reality dawned on me that the Manchester they were referring to was here, in the north of England - my home.

Switching to Facebook, still confused, I was shocked to see school friends who were at the concert with their kids - describing running through smoke, desperately trying to keep hold of their kids and escape to safety, describing how they’d “never been so scared in their whole lives".

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Just a couple of hours before, the same kids had been checking in at the arena on Facebook, describing their excitement at going to see “their idol".

As I write this, the death toll is currently 22 and the number of injured almost 60.

That's around 100 families who will never be the same again. Families who paid the ultimate price, just for having fun.

Why? Why? Why?

My shock quickly turned to sadness. I feel hurt. My heart breaks for the families who have had the ultimate bad news. For the families desperately searching for loved ones. For the people injured.

Seeing frantic messages from people searching for their friends and family, my tears came.

My sadness then turned to anger. Who did this? How dare they?

I don't want to be a part of this world of hatred. We don't deserve to be.

I try to calm myself down, reminding myself that we don't yet know the facts.

I don't want to be part of fuelling hatred and I find wrongful speculation dangerous. But it’s hard. Controlling the anger I feel about this, is hard.

Fun is fun, however we choose it to be, and freedom is freedom, and that is something I treasure.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, deserves to get dressed up to go to a concert and fear their safety. Nobody deserves to be ripped apart by nails, while simply having fun.

Somebody somewhere knows the cowardly scumbag who did this and they MUST work with the police. Information will be out there and it needs to be shared.

People who hold these murderous views need to be stopped, before they can cause more harm.

The people who protect these cowards or turn a blind eye are just as guilty, in my mind, as the cowards who do this.

People often talk about tough Northerners and they are right - us Northerners ARE tough and together we will stand strong.

We can’t let these murderers destroy our way of life. We just can’t.

We can’t let these b*****ds win. If we stop living our lives and if we start being afraid, then they have won, and that would be a disaster.

Watching the news right now, I see examples of fear, shock and confusion.

But I also see something else. I see goodness. I see people helping, people caring, people giving blood, people hugging strangers.

I see people donating money, opening their homes, offering support. I see people united. I see love.

My anger has switched again - it has switched to pity. Because you see, we have full lives, we have fun.

We dance, we laugh, we learn, we play, we care, we travel, we gain experiences, we have goals and ambition and dreams.

We have sports and parks. We have freedom and friends. We have decency and tolerance. We have love and we have life.

So to the cowards who are reading this - I pity you. I pity your hate filled lives. I pity that you see so little value in the life you could have - instead choosing to blow yourself to pieces, because you choose death.

I’m not scared of you - I pity you.

Manchester. You truly have my heart and everyone else’s. The families affected have our thoughts. The emergency services who keep us safe have our respect.

We will never forget, but we will also never let these cowards win.

Earlier today we told how ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly blast, with the bomber likely to be part of a cell already known to MI5, according to experts.

Eight-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos and Georgina Callander, 18, are two victims now known to have died.