Survivors of the Dunblane massacre are continuing to battle on with their lives almost three decades after a gunman killed 16 pupils and a teacher at a school.
Exactly 28 years to this day, Thomas Hamilton went on a shooting rampage at Dunblane Primary School killing the children and their teacher Gwen Mayor after bursting into the gym hall with two handguns.
Hamilton, a 43-year-old former Scout leader, fired off 105 shots in the space of three minutes before turning the gun on himself.
Those caught up in the horrific attack have spoken in the past about the trauma of the harrowing scenes they witnessed, while others are still recovering physically from the wounds they received.
One of the survivors includes British tennis star Andy Murray who has previously opened up the tragedy and revealed that he and his brother Jamie were in lessons when Hamilton burst in with his guns.
Exactly 28 years to this day, Thomas Hamilton (pictured) went on a shooting rampage at Dunblane Primary School killing 16 children and their teacher
Primary 1 class at Dunblane Primary School, pictured with teacher Gwenne Mayor, who was killed with sixteen of the children
A police officer stands guard at the school after the shooting on March 13, 1996
Queen Elizabeth II arrives with Princess Ann to lay a wreath at the entrance of Dunblane Primary School on March 17, 1996
In May 2019, Murray opened up about the tragedy for the first time in Amazon Prime documentary ‘Andy Murray: Resurfacing’.
Murray told film-maker Olivia Cappuccini: ‘You asked me a while ago why tennis was important to me. Obviously I had the thing that happened at Dunblane. When I was around nine.
‘I am sure for all the kids there it would be difficult for different reasons. The fact we knew the guy, we went to his kids club, he had been in our car, we had driven and dropped him off at train stations and things.’
Another survivor, Amy Bestwick, was in the same class as Andy at the school. She survived after she hid under a teacher’s desk and watched as bullets flew through a window just metres from her.
Ms Bestwick moved to Scotland with her family in 1993 and spent three years at Dunblane Primary School.
She was with her classmates in Primary Four when the tragedy unfolded. The children who died, along with their teacher Ms Mayor, were in Primary One.
Ms Bestwick revealed she was walking through a corridor to the school’s music room when Hamilton began shooting in the gym, at around 9.30am.
The corridor was separated from the gym by a concrete playground.
She said she and a friend saw bullet holes appearing on the glass in front of them and chunks of plaster coming out of the walls behind
Andy Murray (pictured at Dunblane Primary School) was just nine-years-old at the time of the shooting
Amy Bestwick, 33, is a survivor of the Dunblane massacre
She survived after she hid under a teacher’s desk and watched as bullets flew through a window just metres from her
Ms Bestwick said she could still remember seeing a figure in the doorway of the gym’s fire escape. It was believed to be Hamilton.
She then crawled back to her class before she was reunited with her mother.
Ms Bestwick’s family completed a planned family relocation to Nottinghamshire two weeks after the murders.
However, Ms Bestwick battled with undiagnosed anxiety and depression and attempted to take her own life when she was just 14.
Her problems continued into her 20s when she still felt the need to close all windows and blinds to make her feel secure.
Anther survivor, Aimie Adam, 25, from Aberdeen, was just five years old when the massacre took place. The mental health nursing student at Robert Gordon University was one of only 12 survivors from Primary One, but was one of the most seriously injured.
She was shot twice – in the right buttock and right thigh – before her PE teacher Eileen Harrild told her to crawl into a gym cupboard. It was there the schoolgirl blacked out.
Ms Adam had surgery to remove a bullet from her thigh and during the operation surgeons found a second bullet which had entered near her groin and lodged at the bottom of her back.
Aimie Adam, 25, from Aberdeen, was just five years old when the massacre took place
Ms Adam (pictured) completely blanks out the incident from her life as much as possible
Aimie Adam pictured as a schoolgirl. Ms Adam was shot twice – in the right buttock and right thigh – during the massacre
She previously revealed: ‘I have no movement in my right leg from the knee down or feeling. It damaged the sciatic nerve – the bullet in my spine did that.
‘I had nerve damage and my foot hasn’t really grown since the accident so it’s smaller that my other one.
‘I just feel like it’s (the massacre) part of my life so it feels like the normality to me. I suppose it’s quite a surreal thing to have happened to you.
‘I feel bad for him (Hamilton) that his life was so terrible that he had to ruin other people’s lives. I hate him but he’s gone and he can’t ruin anybody else’s life.
‘I just can’t let something like that beat me because if I did I wouldn’t be the person I am. It sort of made me who I am.
‘It’s definitely one of the reasons I did choose to do it (mental health nursing). I want to know why people do these things and what they were thinking.’
She told The Sun in 2016: ‘The only thing that gets me tearful is bottles of champagne or prosecco popping. Balloons or fireworks are a big fear and party poppers as well.
‘I really don’t like those. I get scared, have a little cry and then I sort myself out.’
Ms Adam completely blanks out the incident from her life as much as possible. She has never read any of the newspaper articles written at the time and tells strangers that her limp was due to an ‘accident’.
Ms Adam had surgery to remove a bullet from her thigh and during the operation surgeons found a second bullet which had entered near her groin and lodged at the bottom of her back
Amie Adam pictured with her grandmother Christine
Aimie Adam was five when Hamilton opened fire in the gym hall of Dunblane Primary School on March 13, 1996
Ms Adam believes it’s a godsend that she can’t remember much of the actual incident. She recalled laying beside her teacher Mrs Harrild, who had been shot in the arm and chest.
Ms Adam said: ‘She told me to crawl into the gym cupboard. I don’t remember but I must have made it.
‘Nursery teachers were running in and shouting for paper towels, then I must have lost consciousness as that’s all I remember.
‘I can’t remember him (Hamilton) walking into the room, I can’t remember anything about him. I wasn’t aware he’d shot himself. I had no idea what was going on. You’re five years old — you’re not supposed to be exposed to that sort of stuff.’
Ms Adam was taken to Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children and put in intensive care. During her three weeks in hospital, she underwent many operations.
She had to be home-schooled for a spell after her release and could only move about in a wheelchair. At the age of 12, she moved to Aberdeen to begin a new life with her legal guardian.
In the wake of the shootings, amid huge public pressure, a desire emerged for some small good to emerge from such a heinous act.
In response to the parents of Dunblane, the Government introduced the 1997 amendment to the Firearms Act that effectively banned ownership of handguns.