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MOSCOW – A leading activist in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, has likened her group’s aim with her struggle to survive the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Setsuko Thurlow, who was 13 when the 1945 bombing devastated her Japanese city, spoke Sunday at the formal Nobel Peace prize presentation in Oslo, Norway. The group is a driving force behind an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

READ MORE: Canadian Hiroshima survivor accuses West of nuclear disarmament ‘sabotage’

Thurlow said the blast left her buried under the rubble of a school, but she was able to see some light and crawl to safety.

She says “our light now is the ban treaty.” She adds “I repeat those words that I heard called to me in the ruins of Hiroshima: ‘Don’t give up. Keep pushing. See the light? Crawl toward it.”‘

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