A mum who lost her son in the Manchester Arena bombing said Prince William's words at a memorial service have been "very significant".
Figen Murray's son Martyn Hett, 29, died in the attack during the Ariana Grande concert.
She has been campaigning ever since for Martyn's Law in which venues would have a legal duty to devise and provide specific security plans for a terror attack.
After nearly five years since the Manchester Arena attack this took a significant step forward as the law was confirmed in today's Queen speech. This news, along with the opening of the 'beautiful' memorial, made this a 'fitting day for her’.
She told the Manchester Evening News : "The two of them (William and Kate) coming was very special. William has his own experience of grief and you could tell all the words he said came from the heart.
"Their words were beautiful and they took so much time to speak to all the families here today.
"This is not a memorial just for the families but for the whole city. It's really important for future generation, I hope that kids are told about what happened, it's a part of Manchester's history."
On Martyn's Law moving a step closer having been included in the Queen's speech, she said: "Today is a very special day as the Protect Duty legislation was mentioned in the Queen's speech, which is a massive step forward in the right direction. We can now see the end in sight.
"This is very significant. The memorial being opened put together with that news, was really quite fitting. Sadly the legislation has not quite been passed by the fifth anniversary but hopefully by the next anniversary everybody when out and about will be safer than they were before.
"Hopefully families will not have to go through what we've been through because of this. We've come here in recent weeks and seen people having their own moment of reflection which is lovely to see. This is not just for the families involved it's for all of Manchester.
"The attack was one against the whole city. So to have this memorial in the heart of the city for everybody to have and reflect with is very nice."
The Duke of Cambridge recalled the grief of losing his mother as he told families torn apart by the Manchester Arena attack: “There is comfort in remembering.”
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stood shoulder to shoulder with relatives of the 22 people killed after an Ariana Grande gig on May 22, 2017.
The royal couple attended the unveiling of the Glade of Light Memorial, a place of hope in the city where local-born terrorist Salman Abedi detonated a homemade bomb in his rucksack. Six children were among hundreds hurt.
William said he and Kate, who wore earrings in the shape of a bee, the city’s symbol, wanted “to remember the 22 lives so brutally taken. To acknowledge the hundreds of lives irrevocably changed and pay trib-ute to the resilience of this great city”.
The Duke, whose mum Princess Diana died in 1997, added: “As someone who lives with his own grief, I also know what often matters most to the bereaved is that those we have lost are not forgotten. There is comfort in remembering.
“In acknowledging that, while taken horribly soon, they lived. They changed our lives. They were loved, and they are loved.”
Designed in consultation with victims’ families, the monument is adorned with a white marble ‘halo’ and inscribed in bronze with the names of the dead. A hawthorn tree on the living memorial will bloom each May.
Memory capsules, provided by loved ones, are embedded within the stone. William called the monument “a counter to the violence and hateful disregard for human life that caused this tragedy”.
Many of those gathered at the event broke down in tears or held each other as the Manchester Survivors Choir and Pass Wood High School Choir sang Halo by Beyonce. William recalled how, in the days after the atrocity, locals in the city centre sporadically united to sing Oasis hit Don’t Look Back In Anger.
He said: “You raised your voices together and sang a song of love written by some of this city’s most famous sons. You showed the world the true heart of this extraordinary place.”
Kate, 40, laid flowers at the memorial and later, the royals joined some of the bereaved families and first responders at a private event at the Cathedral.
Among those remembered was 14-year-old Nell Jones, killed as she left the venue. Mum Jayne said: “I don’t know how you cope with it but you do.”
Joanne Roney, of the Manchester Memorial Trust, said: “I can only hope that it (the memorial) brings some small measure of comfort to know that those lost on that day are forever honoured in the heart of Manchester.”
