“Along with Sara and Leila, two friends from university, we spent many hours tying messages to the roses. The message read: ‘Today we are gifting over 1,000 roses. Why? Because this is the place, the time, the moment to take the pen and write narratives of love and solidarity, not hate and division. We won’t let London Bridge fall down, nor any other bridge upon which the community of this great city and nation are built.’

Twenty of us handed out 3,000 roses a week after the attack. The response was heartwarming. One lady was so moved that she started crying. Every volunteer had a special experience with the people they spoke to – people who were near the attack, locals that have lived in London all their lives, passing tourists.

We didn’t want the momentum to end, so we are trying to turn A Thousand Roses into a permanent community group. London Bridge was just the start.”

To celebrate the best in people, Stylist photographed and interviewed 10 heroic women – just a few of the many who served to inspire us all in 2017. To see the rest of our Women of the Year 2017, click here.

Stylist’s Women of the Year 2017: The woman who gave out roses after a terror attack