A CANDLELIT vigil will be held in town exactly two weeks on from Saturday's terror attack which killed three people.
After initially hoping to arrange a small gathering of people, a Facebook event set up by Reading woman Bernadette Martin soon spiralled into something bigger, as more and more people got in touch to say they would like to join to pay their respects.
Joe Ritchie-Bennett, James Furlong and David Wails died after a lone attacker began stabbing people at Forbury Gardens.
Bernadette said: "I knew Joe's late husband Ian - I used to work with him at an estate agents so I knew Joe through him
"Although I knew him through Ian I saw a lot of him, and when we bumped into each other we would always chat and had time for a catch up."
Bernadette said she decided to organise something after realising how many people had been affected by the tragedy.
"I just thought, 'this is affecting everyone'", she said.
"I even heard of one girl who witnessed the attack and had to have her parents pick her up and take her home to Wales as she felt she couldn't stay in Reading after seeing it.
"So this vigil will be for everyone - the people injured and everyone affected.
"It will also be to say thank you to the emergency services and everything the police are still doing now. "It will be a display of solidarity and mourning and it's to celebrate the lives of the three men.
"We are seeing if we could get a choir to perform also.
"I have heard from Joe's family in Philadelphia and they were saying thank you for this and that they would be lighting a candle too."
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The exact location of the vigil has not been confirmed yet, because Bernadette is still trying to find out where would be best and where police would advise holding it, but it is likely to be outside the town hall.
It will take place on Saturday, July 4 at 7pm.
Bernadette added: "Police, Reading Street Pastors and people from Victims First will be there to offer support to anyone who may need it."
For up-to-date information on the vigil and to check the confirmed location, see the Reading Remembers Facebook page here.
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