Five brave mothers who lost their sons to knife crime have shared their emotional stories as part of a new campaign supported by the Metropolitan Police Service and the independent charity, Crimestoppers.
At the very heart of the ‘Hard Calls Save Lives’ campaign, is a series of short films where each of these mothers reflects on the hardest calls they had to make after their sons were fatally stabbed.
Each mother wanted to take part to encourage others to call Crimestoppers, anonymously, with information about knife crime to help prevent more deaths.
The campaign acknowledges that although doing so may be hard, there are harder calls to make – such as the devastating ones made by these mothers after their sons were tragically murdered.
Today (8th April), the mothers will join Commissioner Cressida Dick at a socially-distanced event at New Scotland Yard where their emotional films will be screened.
These films will be supported by adverts throughout the rest of the month which will be targeted at people in areas most affected by violent crime and are particularly aimed at inspiring women who may have a close relationship to someone on the periphery of knife crime – mums, sisters, aunties – to report vital information.
Remembering her own tragic experience, one of the mothers, Yvonne Lawson MBE, said: “I rang my sister and said I’ve just been told Godwin has died. I just kept repeating ‘died, died, died.’ Godwin was stolen away from us in such a terrible way. My family is broken into pieces, just missing him. We didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye, and he’s never going to be there, he’s never going to be part of us anymore. The least we can do is use his memory to change lives.”
Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick said: “This campaign would not have been possible without the strength and courage of these mothers, who have relived the traumatic calls they had to make in the hope that it will prevent other families suffering, as they have.
“I have no doubt that these tragic accounts will resonate with Londoners, and will hopefully encourage them to pick up the phone and call Crimestoppers, anonymously, with any information they might have. Making that one call could literally save the life of someone’s son or daughter.”
More information about the campaign including the five mothers stories can be found on the campaign website hardcallssavelives.co.uk.
Anyone with any information linked to knife crime is urged to contact Crimestoppers anonymously on freephone 0800 555 111 or via their website at Crimestoppers-uk.org.
