With his every wheezing breath, PJ Allen is reminded of the Oklahoma City bombing. At just 18 months old, he was in the daycare centre of the Murrah Federal Building when Timothy McVeigh’s 7,000lb bomb ripped through it in America’s worst act of domestic terrorism.
The interior chambers of the toddler’s lungs were melted in the blast and more than half his body was covered in second and third-degree burns.
The attack, 25 years ago on Sunday, killed 168 people including 15 children in the creche and its three teachers. PJ, now 26, was the youngest survivor, one of the lucky ones.
He has rebuilt his life with the help of his loving gran – and his friend Sarah, the Duchess of York. “Sarah is a huge part of my family,” he says. “She’s such a