A 37-year-old Alison Thompson was armed with a camera and a first-aid kit when she rollerbladed towards a commotion she heard was caused by a plane in Lower Manhattan, New York, on September 11, 2001.

After passing swaths of what she remembers thinking were “zombies” – shell-shocked civilians covered in soot, fleeing destruction – Thompson encountered an arm extending from a mound of gravel, an engagement ring on a finger. She yanked it, attempting to help the partially buried woman. There was no body attached.

Horrified and nearly toppled by another crashing tower, Thompson sped away on her rollerblades and arrived at a base opposite the World Trade Centre, and began washing firefighters’ eyes with saline.

The former Cronulla High School maths teacher turned New York investment banker

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