Celebrating Havering’s Heroes-Sue Hedges From the Ricky Hayden Memorial and Peguy Kato from All Champion’s Charity.

Sue Hedges and Peguy Kato do not consider themselves as heroes. As a matter of fact they would rather have their sons back than be considered heroes across London.

These are two bereaved Havering mums whose lives were shattered when they lost their sons to knife crime. Now, both spend their time campaigning to stop knife crime in the hope that no other family will go through what they have faced.

Sue and Peguy can be found on the streets of Havering and London talking to our youth, holding seminars for them and donating bleed bags in a bid to save lives.

In 2016, Ricky Hayden was murdered outside his home. Ricky received a machete blow to his thigh that eventually caused his death. His family had to make the heartbreaking decision of having to turn his life support machine off. His death is something his family will never recover from.

Since his death, Sue Ricky’s mother, has campaigned to stop knife crime on our streets. There isn’t a week that goes by that Sue is not on our streets talking to youths or donating vital life saving Daniel Baird bleed kits to as many organisations as possible.

Thanks to Sue and the Daniel Baird bleed bag she donated to a local college in Hornchurch, a youth’s life was saved. He had been stabbed on his way to college and managed to get to college where staff used the kit to stem his bleeding and save his life.

Now, Sue campaigns everyday to stop the scourge of knife crime. She donates bleed kits across London to endless organisations such as school, pubs and colleges. She talks to youth across a variety of different colleges, urging them not to carry weapons.

Sue struggles each week having lost her son. Her family have had no justice for Ricky’s death and yet despite her sadness, she dedicates her time helping others. She really is a Havering hero.

Peguy Kato lost her son Champion in 2012. Champion was stabbed multiple times in Newham after playing football with his friends. When Peguy was told of her son’s death she will tell you’the light went out of her life. Champion was her oldest son and he died on the street without her there.

Since his death, Peguy has spent her time trying to understand why our youth carry knives and what she can do to stop them.

Peguy has held many youth seminars where she spends time listening to teenagers and trying to get them to not carry knives. She works with many organisations to support anti knife crime campaigns and hopes that one day our youth will stop going out with weapons and that no other child will die on our street.

Peguy runs All Champion’s Charity in memory of her son Champion where shes raises money for an orphanage in Congo. Despite her own struggles having lost her son, this lady does everything she can to stop other teenagers from losing their lives.

Sue and Peguy are incredible women who have campaigned for years now to make their voices heard. Sadly, despite their endless pleas and having met with Mayor’s and politicians, no one seems to be interested in tackling knife crime as it continues on our streets. Both ladies work with local police officers who do an amazing job tackling knife crime, but as we know we cannot police our way out of this public health crisis. It must be tackled community wide.

These ladies and their families have endured sadness, yet despite this, the go on everyday to save our youth and live for the day that someone, somewhere will support them.

RIP Ricky Hayden

RIP Champion Ganda.

Stay up to date with all of our latest updates and content by following us on our social media accounts!

We have created community pages where we will share our up-to-date stories happening in the area. Add the area closest to where you live.