‘My son should be celebrating his birthday today-but instead his life ended on the street’.

Ten years ago to this day, Champion Ganda’s life ended on the streets of Newham following a brutal stabbing. His mum’s desperate wish is the chance to have had the opportunity to see what her son would look like today.

Peguy Champion Ganda from Harold Hill, told the Havering Daily: “He was just 17 year old when his life ended, my biggest wish is to be able to have seen what an amazing man he would have turned into. I close my eyes and I dream of how Champion would look, what he would have achieved in his life and that is what I struggle with the most.

“Champion’s life ended at the age of just 17 years old, his killer will be back out on our streets in his 20s. There is no justice for families of knife crime. We are faced with life sentences. Nothing will ever take this pain away.

“Do you know just how hard it is to close your eyes and know that a child you gave birth to, raised and love so dearly, will never walk through your door again? The pain is indescribable. There are no words to sum up how bad it is.

“My son was just playing football when he was brutally stabbed. He was just another teenager playing football like so many others do when his life ended. I had to sit and watch the CCTV footage of him dying on the street alone. The saddest part is here we are today, ten years on and nothing has changed, it has actually got worse. All us parents who have lost their child to knife crime know that no one cares- we can see that clearly.”

Champion was Peggy’s eldest son and his death has left a unfillable hole in her life.

“It took my ages to actually come to terms with the fact that he had gone. I couldn’t believe it, I still believed he would walk through my door again. That really is the hardest part.”

Champion’s biggest wish in his life was to have built an orphanage in Congo where he was born and to help so many orphans there. Now, in his memory, Peggy is building the Champion Ghanda orphanage in Kinshasa to help give children there a chance.

“I have run out of words, I have spoken to so many people who have promised help and very little have actually helped stop this knife crime epidemic. Everyday we are watching another child die on our streets.

“I saw a boy be sentenced to twenty years for attempted murder after stabbing another boy, yet my son who was murdered-his killer got fourteen years and no doubt he will not serve all that time.

“There needs to be some consistency and proper justice. Someone, somewhere, somehow will have to address this problem and not just throw money at it thinking that will solve everything.

“Today, I remember my son Champion and the amazing young man he was and I hold all other parents in my heart too and hope that one day we will all have some justice.”

RIP Champion-gone but never forgotten.

If you have any unwanted children’s clothing or toys you would like to donate to Champion’s orphanage, please email us at newsdesk@thehaveringdaily.co.uk.

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