Essex has become the first county in England to have bleed prevention kits installed at each of its fire stations.
The move comes after campaigning from Julie Taylor, who lost her grandson Liam at 19 after he was stabbed outside a pub near Chelmsford in 2020.
Starting The Liam Taylor Legacy, Julie now educates about knife crime in schools and raises funds for the kits to be installed across communities.
Speaking to GB News, Julie said: “We’ve had 15 used that have helped 16 people and we’ve had four that have saved lives. So that’s really good.
“I’ve got them in schools and pubs and everything like that, but firefighters also do a lot in the community.
“Every police or car carries one, so we thought let’s put them on every fire station and then it’s extra safety for the community.
“They’re really simple to use, just dial 999, get the code for the box, take the bag out and it’s really, really compact. Everything’s there.”
Speaking about the current levels of knife crime in the UK, Julie added: “It’s not going to go away, is it?
Bleed control kits have been installed at fire stations
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“All we can do is hopefully control, but education is a huge thing. We have to have education in schools, and we have to educate our children at home.
“Check your children’s bedrooms, their bags, their friends.
“Don’t be scared, they’re your children, look after them. You’ve got to raise awareness and help each other.”
At the unveiling of the bleed kit at the Ingatestone Fire Station, the achievement of five-year-old Olivia Carey was also celebrated. She raised £1,200 running 10,000 kilometres.
The council’s deputy leader spoke about educational programs being rolled out alongside funding
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Each kit costs £440 with funding support also coming from Essex County Council.
The council’s Deputy Leader, Louise McKinlay, says educational programs were also being rolled out alongside their funding.
She told GB News: “We’ve put in £15,000 which is funding the roll out of the bleed bags across the fire stations, but also really importantly, also funding some education work in schools to highlight the dangers of knife crime and the impact that it has.
“It builds on work that we’ve done previously, where we have funded bleed bags that have gone into licensed premises as well, and it’s about making sure that we can raise the profile of the dangers of knife crime and support communities so that they know where to go.”
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There was a five per cent decrease in knife-enabled crime in Essex in the year from April 2024 and Essex’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Roger Hirst, describes the bleed kits as vital to their strategy and urges other regions to follow their lead.
He said: “We’ve reduced knife harm by 25 per cent and actual hospitalisations by half over the last five years here in Essex.
“It’s a few hundred pounds to actually have these things at each and every fire station.
“People know that fire stations are a place to go in time of need.
“It’s a really simple, and a very effective solution to a problem that we all know is so serious.”