Club’s bleed kit campaign ‘Make training part of school curriculum’
AFAMILY who run a community football club in South Bristol have spoken of their mission to keep the memory alive of their under-16 captain who was stabbed to death earlier this year.
Mike Alden, his wife Linda, their son Scott and daughter Carly Kingdon run Park Knowle FC along with Carly’s husband Danny – it was where Max Dixon, who was fatally stabbed near his home in Knowle West in January, played his football. The family are now on a mission to raise funds to get bleed kits – specialist first aid kits to treat heavy blood loss – installed across South Bristol, and also to make the training on how to use them a standard part of the school curriculum.
Carly has set up an online petition on the Government’s website and already around 1,500 people have signed. It needs 10,000 signatures for the Government to look at the call, and 100,000 signatures for the idea to be debated in parliament.
The campaign is gathering momentum – and T-shirts supporting it in Park Knowle FC colours are becoming a familiar sight around Knowle West, a community still in shock at the deaths of Max and his best friend Mason Rist, 15.
Carly has been invited to a 10 Downing Street reception in a few weeks to discuss the idea, and in the meantime, funds are being raised to purchase more bleed kits. The coaches at Park Knowle are undergoing training on the bleed kits to learn how to train others to use them.
The club plays its matches on Sundays, and that Sunday morning after the fateful night in January will be forever etched as the most traumatic of the family’s lives.
All the teams, including Max’s under-16s team, were scheduled to play, and word of the terrible tragedy got to the family, including Scott, who was Max’s team coach, early on Sunday morning.
“It was just so difficult. We were all terribly upset and thinking of Max and Mason’s families, but it was too late to cancel all the games that morning,” explained Mike. “It was just solemn, everyone was quiet. We called off the under-16s game obviously, but one of the worst bits was that everyone knew something terrible had happened but at that point, people didn’t know who was involved. We knew but we couldn’t say anything, it wasn’t our place to say. It was awful, on top of dealing with our own shock and grief,” he added.
“I don’t think I have come to terms with it yet,” added Carly. “That morning I was just thinking ‘this is surely not happening.’ And I still can’t believe it. It is indescribably such a terrible thing to happen. I’m still in shock, I think.”
Max was a familiar face at the Park Knowle club house. “He’s been with us since he was about eight or nine,” explained Mike. “He was just such a great kid, a lovely lad. He was growing up into a great young man. He was funny and cheeky and friendly, but when he got on the pitch, he was driven. He was always really encouraging and positive to his team-mates – that’s why he was captain, he was the stand-out kid to be captain, he was a leader,” Mike added.
The club house on the Park Centre campus is a hive of activity on training nights and weekends, and now has pictures of Max alongside all the trophies the teams have won. “We knew Mason quite well, as well,” explained Mike. “He was a familiar face, he was always coming in with his friends – all the young lads hang out here – and he’d just started playing too. He was football mad. It’s terrible.”
The following week saw flowers, pictures, poems and tributes laid on the corner of Ilminster Avenue for Max and Mason, as the community struggled to come to terms with what had happened. Max’s team-mates added his number 14 shirt to the tributes.
The following Sunday, after the tragic news was confirmed and the community in Knowle West was struggling to come to terms with what happened, everyone gathered again at Park Knowle FC. This time, all the teams’ matches were cancelled except for Max’s under-16s game, which became a tribute match for Max. Buckets were passed around and more than £3,300 was raised for the families.
Mike, Linda and Carly are now focussing on making a change, and creating a legacy.
“We are just trying to somehow look for positives,” said Mike. “And one thing we’ve all focused on are the bleed kits. It’s not just about stabbing, these kits could save someone’s life or a limb from any kind of accident or crash if they’ve suffered a serious injury,” he added.
Carly set up the petition and members of the wider Park Knowle family – the coaches, the parents, including Max’s family – are backing the drive. It’s twofold – to raise money to get more bleed kits, but more importantly, to get as many people as possible to know how to use them, so that they are confident if they ever find themselves in a situation where one is needed.
“We just want people across Bristol, and across the country, to know about this petition, to sign it, and to understand how it could make a difference,” said Carly.
“Another part of it is that we hope that maybe if kids at school are taught how to deal with bleed injuries, then the reality of what happens if someone is stabbed will hit home with them, and they might be more likely to think twice about carrying a knife, or using it,” added Mike.
» The Park Knowle junior sides are raising funds and awareness with a day of packing bags at the Asda store in Whitchurch next Saturday from 10am to 4pm.
» The petition can be found at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/657196