Brave Manchester Arena bombing survivor Yasmin now helping NHS recreate disaster scenes

Yasmin Reevell, from Sutton upon Derwent, still suffers from PTSD after surviving the tragic May 2017 attack that resulted in 22 people losing their lives and hundreds more being injured.

With her determination to help the Emergency Services respond to such situations in the best possible way, however, she is now utilising the skills acquired during her BA (Hons) Media Make-up, Special Effects and Hair Design degree at Sim Balk Lane in a new job with medical simulation specialists Simbodies.

The Thirsk-based company also work with the Military Services to replicate combat settings, ensuring that medical students experience a highly immersive training environment and learn high-risk procedures in a low-risk secure situation.

It is a job that sees Yasmin, 24, design and produce bodies and body parts for simulated patients needing urgent medical attention – a specialism that has seen four of her fellow York College University Centre course graduates also employed in the same role.

The career move is not one Yasmin might have anticipated but, having gone through such a terrifying ordeal, she has a genuine awareness of the importance of the work she is now doing, making her believe there was an element of fate attached to the job opportunity.

“Without the prosthetics and silicone dummies that we give to the Military and NHS, they wouldn’t know what to do when things like the Manchester Attack happen,” she pointed out. “I’ve been doing the job for just over a month now and everything happens for a reason.”

Yasmin attended the American singer’s pop concert just over a fortnight after her 18^th birthday as she was coming to the end of two years studying Level 3 Music courses at York College.

She subsequently left the region to study Music at university but, having struggled to settle as her PTSD intensified, Yasmin decided to drop out.

In 2020, she then returned to Higher Education in more familiar surroundings and opted to pursue a different academic path.

“I really liked the sound of the course, especially as it had three different aspects to it - hair, media make-up and special effects,” Yasmin points out. “I had to do a portfolio at the beginning to demonstrate that I could do make-up and, from the moment I started the degree, it was really good.”

Having battled such strong personal challenges to resume her studies, Yasmin then demonstrated tremendous courage to choose PTSD as the theme for her major project on the course.

Despite the concerns of her tutors that emotions from the past could be triggered, Yasmin was intent on sharing her story to help others who might be suffering from the disorder and highlight the importance of understanding the long-lasting effects of PTSD.

“I did wonder if it was the right thing to be doing,” Yasmin admits. “But, in the grand scheme of things, I knew I’d been through enough to know how to deal with it. It was helping me and other people by shining a light on it.”