Surrounded by posters wishing her a speedy recovery, a signed Winnipeg Blue Bombers helmet and jersey, and a phone by her side that constantly receives messages of support, Jan Lambourne says she feels embraced by her community.
"The emails and all the encouragement has just, it's what got me through a lot of horrible nights."
The first of which happened in Las Vegas on Oct. 1. She was at the outdoor country music festival with her friend Jody Ansell, when gunman Stephen Paddock rained bullets down on the crowd below.
"It just started showering bullets," said Lambourne. "It just came across, just out of nowhere."
Lambourne was hit in the stomach, and went down. She didn't know at the time, but the bullet had also hit her pelvis, shattering bone. Yet somehow, she found the strength to move toward safety.
"I just knew I had to get up. I had to get up!"
It was here that the first of many strangers would reach out to help her. Bartender Justin Uhart carried her to an ambulance.
"I was with her from the moment it happened and all the way to the operating room when the doctors kicked me out," remembers Uhart.
That help and support from strangers and friends continues to this day. Recently, hundreds of people came out to a social in her honor held in her home community of Teulon.
"The doctors said if i could sit in that wheelchair i could go," said Lambourne. "And i really worked hard to get in that wheelchair!"
She has a lot of hard work ahead of her. But Lambourne says with the continued support of family and friends, she will find her life again...
