A FORMER police officer who was on duty during the Manchester Arena bombings is running a 10k race in memory of a mother who died during the attack.

Aaron Lee is taking part in a Accrington Road Runners family race on Sunday to honour Michelle Kiss, 45, from Whalley, who was killed during the terror attacks last year.

Mr Lee was a police constable on shift on the night of the Ariana Grande concert when suicide bomber Salman Abedi’s device exploded, killing 22 people.

Now a firefighter the 32-year-old has planned to run 22 10k races in memory of each of the victims.

Mr Lee will run the race on Sunday and donate his medal, which he plans to engrave with Mrs Kiss' name, and donate it to her family.

Mr Lee said: "There are no other words for it, that night at the concert was awful.

"I wanted to do something so Michelle's family and the families of the other victims know they are still in our thoughts.

"I cannot imagine what it has been like for them to lose someone in that way, it must be horrendous.

"There was 22 people that lost their lives from that, but there was thousands of victims, the family and friends of those who have to carry on every day, they are often forgotten about."

Mr Lee, who lives in Rochdale, has aimed to complete all 22 races as close to where the victims lived and to donate all the medals he has won by the two-year anniversary of the attack.

Hundreds of people were injured during the attack and emergency services from across the North West came out to support.

Taxi drivers from East Lancashire drove to Manchester to take concert goers home for free during the pandemonium.

Mr Lee said: "I'm not a natural runner but I wanted to set myself a challenge.

"I have been doing okay so far, I have four races completed with another 11 or so booked in.

"I did a race every weekend in October and I complete a few training runs during the week just to stop my legs tightening up."

The race will start at 10am on Sunday and will start at The Walton Arms pub in Altham.