Bereaved mother’s sadness at latest knife crime figures-‘Our youth just don’t care anymore,no one does.’

‘”It’s good to reveal the statistics of knife crime, but ultimately what is the point? Nothing changes, knife crime carries on rampant across the streets of London,” Sue Hedges tells the Havering Daily.

Sue lost her son Ricky Hayden in 2016, murdered outside of his home in Marks Gate trying to stop thieves stealing a moped. Ricky sustained a machete injury on his thigh that ultimately cost his life, for what? As Sue openly states-‘his death is just another figure to add the statistics, nobody really cares.’

The Metropolitan Police say 40 out of 65 killings in seven months were knife attacks and that the weapons used are bigger now to deliver more fatal wounds.

Does this surprise Sue? “No, sadly it doesn’t ,actually it’s what we all expect as no one really cares about knife crime. All of us bereaved parents spend our lives campaigning, talking, hoping and it makes no difference whatsoever as nothing is done to change it.

“Everytime we meet a politician, we hope something will be done. But here we are, and nothing is yet to be done. We urge leaders to please start tackling knife crime, yet our communities are still being destroyed by these horrendous crimes.

“We know the police do the best they can, but this not just for the police to tackle, the whole community must address this problem. We have urged leaders to get some unity across the capital to work together to stop knife crime.

“Stop and search is at the moment a vital tool, yes it must be done correctly, but it needs to be happening on our streets as the results show it clearly works. Every knife removed is a life saved.

“Sadly we can see our youth just don’t care anymore and we are now at the stage that it clearly is a competition to see who has the biggest weapon on the streets. It doesn’t matter who they are or what background they have, we all live and breathe the same air and families all grieve the same way.”

Sue now runs the Ricky Hayden Memorial where she donates vital life saving bleed kits to as many venues and organisations as she can in the hope to save lives.

“Daniel Baird bleed kits are vital life saving tools and much needed across our community. We hope to donate as many of these kits as we can to help save lives. Every little bit that can be done to fight this, needs to be done.”

It was in fact one of Sue’s kits that saved a teenager who was stabbed on his way to college earlier this year in Hornchurch.The youth was able to make his way into college where his teachers rushed to save his life by using the kit Sue had donated a few weeks before.

“After I heard the news that it was the kit I had handed over, I knew then that my Ricky’s death was not in vain. At last his death was able to mean something.”

These bereaved parents relive their trauma everytime another youth loses his life on the streets, they are broken families who find hope in doing their best to save as many lives as they can.

Sue finished: “It is good to reveal these figures but ultimately nothing will change-knife crime continues on our streets.”

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