AGED just 14, Freya Lewis was only three metres from the terrorist when the blast went off at the Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017.

But it wasn’t the fact she was in the wrong place at the wrong time why the Holmes Chapel schoolgirl has been chosen as a finalist in The Amplifon Awards for Brave Britons 2018.

It was Freya’s inspirational attitude since the blast that has earned her a place in the finals of the Young Hero category as hearing specialist Amplifon searches for unsung heroes who represent the ‘Best of British’.

The awards are in their third year and celebrate remarkable people and the winners will be judged by a panel including Falklands war hero Simon Weston.

Freya’s best friend Nell Jones, also 14, died at the scene. Some 21 others were also killed and more than a hundred injured.

But since then Freya has overcome 70 hours of surgery to initially stay alive and then to learn to walk again.

Freya was in hospital for almost six weeks. In the blast she suffered 29 separate injuries, including a broken arm, two broken legs, severe burns, facial and internal injuries. There was no part of her body that had not suffered the effects of the shrapnel.

Initially she was admitted to the intensive care unit. Freya praises the care she received for saving first her life, and then the use of her badly injured arm and eventually teaching her to walk again.

She was in a wheelchair for five months but massively determined she returned to her school in September 2017 to resume her GCSE studies.

Freya’s dad Nick said: “Amazingly it is Freya herself with her positivity who has helped our family and friends pull through this dark and emotional time.

“But without the fantastic work by surgeons and nursing staff at the hospital none of it would have been possible.”

Incredibly 12 months on, Freya took part in the Great Manchester 2.5km Junior Run while Nick, 52, ran the Great Manchester Run. Between them they have now raised almost £60,000 for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Freya, who is now approaching her 16th birthday, has also become an ambassador for the NHS initially addressing 2,500 distinguished guests at the NHS’s 70th birthday celebrations in Westminster Abbey with a heartrending speech which earned rapturous applause after she told how the NHS care had saved her life.

Since then she has attended other seminars and talks and has also become an Ambassador for the High Sheriff of Manchester.

Despite her physical and mental battle, Freya has never stopped smiling – but more so her positive and inspirational attitude has kept everyone else smiling too.

Freya and Nick will be attending the awards ceremony at the Army and Navy Club in London on October 16.

Giuseppe Manzo, general manager for Amplifon UK & Eire, said: “We received some fantastic entries in the Young Hero category and the four finalists truly embody the heroism shown by Charles Holland.”