Sign InRegister

A symbol of pain and courage

By CNN's Mallika Kapur

Photo of Turrell being aided became a symbol of the attacks.

SPECIAL REPORT

• Interactive: Maps and galleries

• Victims: Fatalities identified

• Special Report: London Terror

Gallery: Search for missing in London bombings

• London bomb victims identified

• Audio Slide Show: London terror

• Gallery: World leaders react

• Gallery: British papers respond

• Eyewitness: 'Absolutely horrific'

• Gallery: London Underground

• Timeline: Past train attacks

• Gallery: Nations raise security

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS

LONDON, England (CNN) -- It quickly became an indelible image of Thursday's bomb blasts in London: a woman in a burn mask, barefoot and bloodied, stumbling away from the Edgware Road Tube station.

Within hours, the picture was splashed across newspapers and Web sites around the world.

Family photographs have since revealed the face behind the mask: a smiling, healthy Davinia Turrell, a 24-year-old corporate tax trainee from Essex, east of London.

Turrell was on her way to work when she was caught in the blast on the Circle Line train.

Just a month earlier, she had lost her mother to cancer.

She is now being treated at London's Chelsea and Westminster hospital.

Her sister, Louise Wells, said despite Turrell's injuries, she had fared better than others caught up in the blasts.

"The burns to the left side of her face are, so the doctor says, superficial. So there's a lot more people out there who suffered a lot more to there than Davinia," she said.

"It was really good that they put the mask on her straight away because that helped a lot."

She said her sister only remembers a "blast and a ball of fire" from the morning the bombs struck.

She said the family was refraining from asking her more about the explosion so as not to upset her.

"We are more concerned with how she is feeling within herself and she's very positive.

"She started today to laugh and joke which was really cool because she's a very happy person."

The person who put the mask on Turrell is former firefighter Paul Dadge, who spotted her as she emerged from the Underground station.

"He's a fantastic guy," Wells said.

"All the pictures show him with such courage and courageousness. My thanks go out to him for calming her down, keeping her calm.

"He's amazing. Some time in the future Davinia would like to see him."

But Dadge rejected any suggestion that he had done anything more than what anyone else would have done in the circumstances.

"I never want to be a labeled as a hero," he told CNN. "Everybody there was a hero."

He said he had employed the first aid skills he learned as a fireman to help Turrell.

While Turrell's recovery continues, the image of her and Dadge remains a symbol of the blasts -- and a symbol of courage.

Story Tools

Subscribe to Time for $1.99

Home Page

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN

CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.

Home Page

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN

CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.