Twenty years ago Warrington was rocked by an IRA bomb attack which killed two children in the town. March 20 marks 20 years since the 1993 bombings. Over the next week, we will be looking at what happened then through the eyes of some of the key people involved.

“SHE was a lovely lady – all she wanted was a cigarette, but not a tipped one, a rolled one.

“But I said: ‘I can’t roll one with one hand!’ “She was fantastic, a very brave woman.”

Ron Riley remembers clearly the events of March 20, 1993 – the day he saved Bronwen Vickers’ life.

Mr Riley was working as a porter at Golden Square shopping centre and should have been meeting his daughter after work.

But when he heard news that an IRA bomb had exploded on Bridge Street he came to the aid of the mum-of-two from Knutsford.

She would eventually lose a leg due to her injuries, but Mr Riley took over from passer-by Mike Argumont and stemmed the flow of blood with his hand until doctors could take control.

The 65-year-old, of Montrose Close, Fearnhead, said: “I went to Bridge Street and people were all running in the opposite direction as the second bomb had gone off.

“The first lad I saw was Tim Parry, he was just on the left of Bronwen Vickers, who was covered in blood.

“There was a chap there trying to stem the blood and I said: ‘Can I help?’”

A former soldier who had served in Yemen and Cyprus, Mr Riley had also taken a first aid course with St John’s Ambulance and used his experience to identify the femoral artery.

He said: “I just used my hand to stem the blood, that’s all you can do.

“I said to the girls from Boots: ‘Can you get me some dressings’ and they really helped, they brought out dry dressings. They were brilliant – everybody mucked in.

“It wasn’t very nice but there were a lot of people who decided to stay and help.”

Mr Riley sat holding the wound for around 20 minutes while waiting for an ambulance with Paul Vickers and the couple’s daughters.

He said: “The main thing was to keep her conscious and speak to her.

“When the paramedics arrived I said: ‘I can’t let go, I’ve got cramp in my hand.

“The medic tied my hand to her leg and we travelled up Winwick Road at about 100mph.”

After the hero left Warrington Hospital he went back into town and ended up assisting firemen trying to keep people out of Warrington Bus Station, before finally returning to work.

He said: “It wasn’t until afterwards that it really hit me – it was bad because the adrenaline was there when it started.

“Anyone under the same circumstances would probably do the same thing I did.”

Mr Riley, who is now a grandfather and lives with his partner Jackie, aged 57, later received a commendation for bravery from Warrington Borough Council and an award from the Samaritan’s Committee in Italy for his ‘great generosity’.

He says he felt unable to attend the first memorial service in 1994, but has visited the spot many times since to pay his respects.

Speaking to the Warrington Guardian back in 1993 he said: “If they catch whoever did this they want to hang them high”.

And he still harbours a lot of anger towards those behind the attacks.

He said: “I still believe what I said at the time. What was the point of what they did, to kill those children and to see 50 kids covered in glass in McDonalds? It didn’t achieve anything.

“The people of Warrington were back shopping in the town centre the next week.

“Somebody knows who did it, Martin McGuinness or somebody in Warrington who must have hid them. But nobody has been caught.”