Martyn Hett died in the Manchester Arena terror attack. Here his brother Dan tells us what happened in the 48 hours that followed:

We think we’ve pieced together what happened to Martyn on Monday night.

He went to the gig with some friends. He was dancing, with a big stupid grin on his big stupid face for the whole time I’m sure.

And he went to get a drink. Then nothing.

I know the layout of the Arena well and I knew very, very early on that if there was any chance he’d gone to the bar or the toilet there was just absolutely no way he had survived.

But we still weren’t sure.

What happened next was surreal.

Me and my sisters were whisked away from my house in a police car and driven at 90 mph down the A6 with blue lights on.

We were brought to the Etihad stadium, where my parents and Martyn’s close friends had been since early morning. Then we were taken to this beautiful conference room which felt so strange.

All the families with missing people had been there all day. We had to take the underground player’s tunnel to avoid the press outside. It got intense quickly. It was awful but we were united.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

The police were completely open with us. When we got to the Etihad they told us they didn’t know how long it would be - it could be eight or 12 hours before we knew anything.

The emotion was too much and we decided to wait at home. We got our things together. Just as we got to the car park our family liaison officer called us back.

That’s when we knew.

Martyn had ID on him. In a way we were lucky, other had to wait much longer to find out.

We don’t know what happens next. We anticipate formal identification of Martyn’s body at some point.

The emergency services at every stage of this have been astonishing. The police have been incredible, the comfort we’ve had from them.

We’ve never been in the dark about any of it. I honestly don’t think we could have got through it as a family without them. They’ve been completely transparent with us when they were carrying out an unimaginable task.

I’ve also been thinking about those in the Arena right this second recovering evidence, debris and bodies.

As a family - and I’m sure the other families would agree - as hard as it’s been we’ve understood fully the enormity of what the city is trying to recover from.

Every facet of support that we’ve needed has been met and exceeded.

Everyone has been so supportive - right down to the little things. Massive piles of pizza turned up, every possible kind of supply for the families. I was never without a cup of coffee in my hand, just constantly supported in every little way right down to the shops not taking our money when we needed to nip out for bits and pieces.

The spirit of generosity has been unreal.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

The more you think about it the more humbling it is. Whatever walk of life people are in they have reached out and helped every way that they can.

And the fundraising has been amazing.

The scale of support even before we found out Martyn had died was incredible. The traders on the street my mum lives on in Heaton Moor shut their shops for the minute’s silence and came out so they were with us.

On behalf of my family, I really just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has reached out. We are tens of thousands of messages in, dozens and dozens of bunches of flowers and chocolates and teddies. We’re swamped at my mum’s house.

I know a lot of people want some level of privacy during this type of thing but I think the manner in which Martyn lived, he was such a known figure, it’s quite fitting to who he was.

I hate going into clichés but Martyn just had this completely unstoppable lust for life, it was unbelievable. He was the most memorable character you could conceive of. Annoying as f*** all day but just the most memorable guy.

(Image: Instagram)

I think everyone who has crossed paths with him be it 10 or 15 years ago or now has reached out with the same kind of intensity, clarity of memory and endless stories about the guy - he’s just been a content generation machine for the last 15 years.

We were joking about it but the idea that he’s received so many messages on Twitter and then been trending is just stupendously fitting a tribute for him really, as silly as that sounds. There is no one else I know that would evoke the same level of response.

I’ve been asked if I’m angry at the terrorist and this one act of atrocity. I guess in time I’m going to have anger but at the moment that has been overshadowed a million times by everything else that’s transpired.

From that one act of aggression there have been a million acts of kindness from every person in Manchester. That’s where the focus is now, that’s where we’re getting our strength from, that’s what’s getting us through.

There’s so much of this response that is just so Manchester.

It’s just Manchester all over. I’ve never been prouder to be part of this city than I am at the moment, as sad as it is.

There will be a vigil for Martyn at Heaton Moor Park, Elms Road, at 7pm on Sunday.