"I'm a nurse. I have to go and help."
Those were the final words South Australian nurse Kirsty Boden told her friends before she was fatally stabbed while helping another victim of the London Bridge terror attack two years ago.
Ms Boden, 28, was out with friends at the Boro Bistro on the evening of June 3, 2017 when three terrorists drove a rented van into pedestrians on London Bridge before getting out of the crashed vehicle and stabbing bystanders in nearby Borough Market.
On Friday, an inquest into the attack at London's Old Bailey heard how she put her own life on the line to come to the aid of French waiter Alex Pigeard, 26, who had been stabbed by one of the attackers in the bistro's garden area.
Mobile phone vision played to the court showed Ms Boden going to Mr Pigeard's aid before she was set upon by all three terrorists: Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba.
Ms Boden was enjoying a dinner out with friends Harriet Mooney and Melanie Schroeder, who had asked Ms Boden to be a bridesmaid at her upcoming wedding.
Ms Schroeder's statement to the court said the trio had been speaking about their plans for the future when they heard a loud bang as the attackers' van crashed.
As the attackers began stabbing people, Ms Boden told her friends: "I'm a nurse, I have to go and help."
Her friends lost sight of Ms Boden as they scrambled to safety, and later saw her lying in an alleyway, badly injured.
"I screamed 'Kirsty' and ran down the alleyway … I was saying 'no, no,'" Ms Schroeder's statement read.
Ms Boden, who had suffered stab wounds, was alive but unable to speak, Ms Schroeder said.
Her friends and an off-duty doctor administered CPR but Ms Boden died lying next to them.
Gareth Patterson QC, representing Ms Boden's family, said the tip of the ceramic kitchen knife carried by one of the attackers was found embedded in her skull.
Earlier this year, Ms Boden was posthumously awarded a bravery medal for her actions in the attack.
Her partner James Hodder said Kirsty "loved people, and loved helping others".
"That's what she did throughout her entire life, and throughout her entire career," he said outside the Old Bailey.
"And as soon as she saw that there was an accident her first instinct was to go and help people, and there was no hesitation at all.
"Kirsty was just so brave, she never thought about it, she didn't run away and she just wanted to do what she could even when she knew it was futile, she stayed and she did her best.
"We're very, very proud of her and what she's done."
The other people killed in the attack were Australian au pair Sara Zelenak, 21, French chef Sebastien Belanger, 36, Canadian national Chrissy Archibald, 30, French national Xavier Thomas, 45 and 39-year-old Ignacio Echeverria of Spain.
All three attackers were shot dead by police less than nine minutes after the rampage began.
The inquest continues on Monday.
