A dance instructor who lost part of her leg in the deadly bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon has vowed to dance again - and run in next year's event.
Doctors were unable to save Adrianne Haslet-Davis' left foot after she was hit by the second bomb as she watched the race last week, and they amputated her leg five inches below the knee.
Despite the life-changing surgery, the 32-year-old said she is not giving up on her passion.
'When I'm dancing, I don't feel the need to be doing anything else. My joy is complete,' she told the Boston Herald.
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Determined: Dance teacher Adrianne Haslet-Davis, pictured with her husband, Air Force Capt. Adam Davis, lost part of her leg in the Boston bombings, but said she would dance again
'I can't let some[one] come along and steal my whole life. So, I'll dance again. And next year, though I've never been a runner, yes, I plan to run the marathon.'
Photographs provided by the Arthur Murray Studio in Park Plaza show the vibrant instructor doing what she does best – teaching others to move and looking graceful dancing herself.
Losing her foot was at the forefront of Haslet-Davis' mind when she and her husband, Air Force Capt. Adam Davis, felt the explosion - and she was driven by the refusal to lose it.
'I remember everything,' she told CNN. 'I remember the first bomb going off and holding onto Adam - my husband - and thinking, "I know there's never just one".
'I just knew something was about to happen and I started screaming. The second bomb went off.... and I remember falling backwards because of the impact.'
All smiles: Adrianne Haslet pictured dancing at the Arthur Murray Dance Center in Boston
Save the last dance: 'I'll dance again,' said the plucky dancer, adding that she plans to run a marathon next year
Coordinated: She works as a ballroom dance instructor
Safe: Her husband suffered shrapnel wounds but used his belt to make a tourniquet for her leg
She woke up certain that she was fine - until her husband gestured to her foot.
'I thought it was over,' she said. 'I lost around 80 per cent of the bone and muscle of my foot. I was bleeding profusely. I was very scared.'
The thought of losing her foot struck her immediately, and she said she felt determined to get help so that she would not become an amputee.
'I was determined to save my foot,' she said. 'I knew I could fight it or I could lay there on the sidewalk and bleed out, and that sounded awful and painful and horrible.'
Fighter: Adrianne said that as well as dancing again, she will run in next year's Boston marathon
Her husband, who just returned from Afghanistan, pulled off his belt and used it as a tourniquet for his wife's wound. He was riddled with shrapnel but managed to drag Adrianne into a restaurant.
Despite the chaos around them, she took a moment to tell her husband what he meant to her.
'If this was going to be the last time we saw each other, I wanted him to know how much I loved him,' she told the Herald. 'Then I told him we'd make it through this, that I wasn't ready to leave him yet.'
She said that when she saw firefighters, she felt that she was going to be safe. She was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she underwent surgery.
Aftermath: Victims of the Boston Marathon bombings lie on the ground following the explosions on Monday
She awoke in hospital a day after the attacks and told her mother, Chauni, that her left foot felt numb.
'Adrianne,' her mother said gently. 'Dear, your left foot… it's gone.'
Despite knowing her life is forever changed, she is determined to return to her passion.
'Dancing is my life,' she said. 'Yeah, having my foot blown off, that really sucks. But I can't wallow in woe is me.'
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