‘I know my son was just another black boy stabbed on our streets but he was my world.’

Peguy Kato is a Havering mum who lost her son to knife crime. He was murdered on the streets of Forest Gate. He was not a drug dealer, he was not in a gang, he was simply a 17-year-old lad in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As her oldest son, Peguy’s life was shattered when Champion was murdered. She never thought the sun would rise again. Still to this day, she does not know how to deal with the pain and sorrow of losing a son.

She had to watch the CCTV footage of her son being stabbed multiple times and bleed to death on the street in court and face her son’s murderers.

Now, she has set up Champion’s Charity, in memory of her son Champion and to help as many parents and teenagers as she can. Her life is now dedicated to bringing peace, love and harmony to our streets, to beg teenagers to not use knives but talk to their parents and for parents to please listen to their children.

Today Peguy writes in the Havering Daily about knife crime and how it is crippling all our communities across the country.

I wake up every day and see in the media that another stabbing has taken place and it is another black boy like my son. Many of you might think, oh well it is just another black boy but that black boy was somebody’s son, somebody’s brother.

It is so painful and sad not only to see our black boys killing each other every day but also to see the anger and hurt our children have got inside them that allows them to do these terrible acts.

No one is supposed to take anyone’s life if you are not in a war zone. But death is becoming normal in our country where there is no war. Parents I know get criticised about the fact that it is frequently black boys killing each other but my question to you is can we find out why our children become like this ? It is very easy to point the finger at us and say it is black killing black, but as a mother we are begging you to help us stop this. Let’s unite all mothers together, regardless of colour and stop these killings on our streets.

Parents teach your sons not to kill and I will teach mine the same. Black, brown or white, let us help each other as I know regardless of different cultures we are all brothers and sisters, so let us stop killing and destroying our lives. When a child is murdered the whole family is not just torn apart but destroyed.

Parents there are many organisation like All Champion Charity that do many conferences about family awareness and knife crime. I encourage you to attend and to help your child .

Sometimes it can be the lack of knowledge and communication that can start problems. Don’t become another family statistic that has lost a child to knife crime. The pain of losing a child to knife crime is unbearable. Make time to find help because when you lose a child nothing will be that important anymore.

We are doing our best as a parents but the outside world is different. Let us support our children by being there for them, talking to them, taking an interest in their lives. Finally please let us support our youth. Please don’t think it’s just another black boy killing a black boy, it could happen to anyone. Those black boys are still somebody’s world. Let’s stand together and reach out to each other.