Brother of Manchester attack victim tweets tearjerking story about his sister sitting exams
The sister of Martyn Hett, who was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing, has achieved phenomenal GCSE results after sitting her exams the day after discovering her brother had died.
Martyn's brother Dan tweeted that his 16-year-old sister Nikita sat several exams the day after discovering her brother Martyn had died in the Manchester Arena attack in May. Nikita has just found out she got 11 A* grades for her GCSEs; the highest possible grades awarded for these exams.
Here's a photo of Martyn (left) with Nikita (middle) and their sister Louise (right):
In a tearjerking Twitter thread, Dan has praised Nikita's strength and bravery when she sat those exams during the family's very dark time, calling her "an actual hero" and the "toughest person" he's ever met.
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"I didn't even know what day it was at that point, it had been such a horrific few days," Dan added. He relays seeing his sister that morning getting ready to go to school to take her GCSE exams.
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Dan says that Nikita was told she didn't need to sit the exams, and they'd use her predicted grades given the circumstances. "Nik said: nope! and took the lot," wrote Dan.
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"It was hands-down the toughest shit I have ever seen. Sleeves rolled up, get it done," wrote Dan.
Nikita got her results on Thursday morning, and discovered she aced her exams. Dan expressed his pride at his sister's incredible achievement under such tragic circumstances.
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Dan added that his "kid sister" is "the toughest person" he'd ever met. "Don't mess with her. Be inspired!"
Nikita told BuzzFeed News that focusing on her exams were a way of coping with her brother's passing. "I'm good at school, it's the one thing I have, so right after when there were loads of people at home I could get out of the house and focus on something else," says Nikita.
Nikita said she didn't expect to get such good grades, and she would have been happy with lower results. Asked how Martyn would have responded to her fantastic news, Nikita said he'd have been really happy.
"He'd just be really proud," she said. "And he'd have been tweeting about it," said Nikita.
What an incredible young woman.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
