Queenslander Candice Hedge remembers looking into the face of the man who stabbed her in the neck during the London Bridge terror attacks which claimed the lives of eight people, including two Australians
The 34-year-old was working at Elliot's Cafe in Borough Market on Saturday, when suddenly people started rushing into the restaurant screaming.
Within minutes she saw the attackers approaching, she told Seven's Sunday Night program.
"I saw two come in and one was beside me as I was huddled in the corner.
"He turned around and spotted me ... he looked at me and I looked at him.
"He got me."
Recounting the moments that followed, Ms Hedge said she went to find her boyfriend Luke who was also working at the restaurant, while clutching her bleeding neck with a cloth.
It was when she started vomiting blood she thought she might not make it.
"I was thinking, I don't want to die," she said.
"I was just focusing on breathing and staying awake and that's all that was going through my head."
Luke described the moment he saw her running towards him as "the worst thing I could imagine".
"There was a brief moment where I thought this might be it," he told the Seven Network.
Together they had to walk to safety because ambulances weren't allowed in the direct area in case the attack wasn't over.
As news of the rampage reached Australia, Ms Hedge's family in Brisbane was struck with fear knowing they couldn't reach her.
Her sister, Amber, got through to Luke, who confirmed their worst fears and she and dad Ross were on the next flight to London.
The reunion was an emotional one, with Mr Hedge saying it was "sensational" to finally see his daughter.
"It was really good to see her and good to see her smiling," he said.
"She held it together better than I thought."
Ms Hedge is recovering in a London hospital and says it's "amazing" she survived after she was told the knife's blade came within millimetres of an artery and her vocal chord.
But she says she's determined not to let the attack keep her from her dreams, insisting she and Luke will stay in London and continue working at Elliot's Cafe.
"I'm not going to be deterred, I have more to do here," she said.
"The last thing I want is to be scared off by this.
"I'm not going to let them change my life - well they have but I'm going to turn it to my advantage if I can."
South Australian nurse Kirsty Boden and Brisbane woman Sara Zelenak were among the eight people killed by the three men who launched the van and knife rampage on London Bridge on June 3.
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