'We prepared ourselves to die'

Rachel from north London was in the bombed carriage of the Tube train travelling from King's Cross to Russell Square on 7 July. Her diary in the days after the attack on the BBC News website was read by thousands.

On the day of the national memorial service at St Paul's she spoke about how survivors have been pulling together, four months on.

Rachel's interview

What has been amazing is that different carriages of people found each other.

What you have to remember is that we were trapped underground for half an hour in most cases in very thick smoke. It choked you.

We were in a very small and deep path of the underground tunnel network. And we were believing we were going to die.

And the people we were standing next to in an extremely crowded train (there were between 700 and 900 people on that train) in most cases we believed those were the people we would die next to. And they would be the last voices that we would ever hear.

In many carriages, we did prepare ourselves to die next to those fellow passengers.

Lack of panic

Everybody has talked of the same experience - the darkness, the fear.

But the astonishing thing is the absolute lack of panic, the collective will to look after each other.

And that is what is very extraordinary about the experience of the people on my train.

There was a sense that each passenger, even though they were strangers, tried to do their absolute best to care for the people in their carriage.

When I get on the Tube I look around me and instead of looking at them all as a threat, I think no, if the worst thing happened again, they would take my hand. Rachel's diary Your comments

To help people down, to smash windows, to pass around tissues, to share water. They prayed.

It was almost overwhelmingly positive.

You think that one person came on the train to cause devastation and terror and what happened instead was that hundreds of people pulled together.

And they cared for each other.

Even when we were leaving the train, even when we were wandering down the tunnel, people stayed in single file.

People even queued to be lifted off the platforms and said 'yes, after you'. And they were able to hold each other's hands.

There is a sense of community that this has engendered in Londoners and commuters.

You never talk to anyone on the Tube. You never make eye contact.

Friendship and support

And here we all are going down the path and keeping in regular contact via email with one another. Sometimes we phone each other.

We have become friends. We were complete strangers who are now all friends.

I don't like travelling on the Tube but I have to do it.

And, if I am having a particularly bad day, I think of my fellow passengers.

And I think of how proud we are of each other.

And whenever one of us has a wobbly day, we email round and say 'I've had to go and cry today at work' and people will say 'yes, I was like that yesterday. But it will get better.'

When I get on the Tube now and feel afraid, I think of them.

I think when I get on the Tube I look around me and instead of looking at them all as a threat, I think no, if the worst thing happened again, they would take my hand.

If you were on the Piccadilly line train on 7/7 and want to meet fellow passengers send your e-mails to [e-mail]