Lorraine Kelly says she doesn’t feel she has the ‘right to feel traumatised’ by reporting on Lockerbie bombing

Lorraine Kelly says she has no right to feel traumatized by the Lockerbie bombing after meeting a woman who lost her neighbors in the disaster.

The presenter, who covered the 1988 terror attack at the age of 29, saw first-hand the devastating aftermath of the tragedy when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in mid-air, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. the Scottish capital. town of Lockerbie.

In ITV1’s new documentary Return to Lockerbie, Lorraine confronts her own difficult memories, including the broken plane cockpit that was still warm and the craters and bodies as she drove through the outskirts of the city.

She met Gillian Moffatt, who was nine years old at the time of the disaster. Gillian had moved from Sherwood Crescent just weeks before Pan Am 103 blasted a huge crater in the street, killing several of her neighbors and damaging her family home.

After the catastrophe, Gillian was left in a ‘very dark place’ and was unable to work in later life after being diagnosed with PTSD.

However, Gillian explained that she struggles to see herself as a victim.

‘There’s almost a bit of, “Well, there’s probably a lot of people who have it. So why am I special?”. Because I’m not. I don’t do that,’ she told Lorraine.

She added, “I think it’s a conditioned response to the culture to not talk about it for so long.

“Let’s face it: when you have a loss or trauma, all you have to do is talk about it. And that’s a healing process, isn’t it? This is how we’ll get through it.’

Lorraine found common ground with Gillian, because she too did not allow herself to be a victim.

She said: ‘What Gillian said really resonated with me, that anyone can be traumatized by this. It’s OK.

‘And it’s not a sign of weakness when I say that I was really hit hard by that. And I still am.’

During the documentary, the TV presenter met Gillian Moffatt (photo), who was nine years old when the plane crashed near her

Speaking to Lorraine, Gillian revealed she had lost several of her neighbors in the crash and her home was damaged

Lorraine continued: ‘It makes me think about the fact that I never really thought about what it did to me and also the long-term effects on me.’

‘But I was only there to report on it. I didn’t live it. I could go inside and then go back to my life.

‘So I don’t feel like I have the right to feel traumatized.

She broke away from the camera and told the producer, “I’m very concerned about that. I don’t want people to think I’m special, you know what I mean?

35 years ago in December, then 29-year-old Lorraine Kelly was one of the first TV reporters to arrive on the scene

Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in mid-air, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground in Lockerbie

“It’s exactly the same as Gillian, look when she said it was like, oh my God, that’s exactly how I feel.”

According to reports, 73 percent of people who lived in Lockerbie 35 years ago suffered from PTSD.

In 1988, counseling was not as common, and Ms Kelly said her own form of ‘therapy’ involved talking to her father about her traumas.

She said one of the reasons she made the documentary was to raise awareness of the issue of PTSD and encourage those suffering to seek help.

Return To Lockerbie with Lorraine Kelly airs on ITV1 and ITVX on Wednesdays at 9pm.