I was mugged at knifepoint. Now I’m terrified for my teenage sons

From red carpet to real life... Reid all about it

There’s a unique feeling of terror when you’re threatened with a knife. I felt it years ago on a quiet street near my home in stockwell, south London.

A young man came out of nowhere and grabbed my handbag. rather than sensibly let him get away, I responded to the adrenaline surging through my body and raced after him, shouting.

We stared at each other briefly, and in that moment I genuinely believe he was more scared than me. he ran off with the £60 I’d just taken from a cashpoint, leaving my bag, Nokia brick phone and house keys.

As I picked up the handbag, I realised it had been cut and looked down to see a wide tear in my heavy raincoat. he’d slashed at my clothes with a knife to get my bag — the blade millimetres from my skin. he could so easily have turned the knife against me when I chased him.

Afterwards, there was basically nothing police could do. Overwhelmed by fear and fury, I couldn’t identify the boy. I felt useless, and sensed the police were frustrated, but I was simply too shocked.

For months afterwards I feared anyone walking close to me on the street, totally losing my trust.

I am now the mother of three teenage boys living in south London, not far from the site of that attack. Knife crime is far worse, and lives are being lost on a frightening scale. As I write, four young men are on trial for the murder of 17-year- old Girl scout Jodie Chesney in a London park.

The news of each latest stabbing — like the two 17-year-olds killed in Milton Keynes at the weekend — makes me fear for my boys whenever they step out of the door. And how is the Mayor of London, sadiq Khan, spending his time? Well, over the weekend, as mums like me worried about letting their children out on the streets, he joined protesters in a march — to campaign for a second referendum on Brexit.

sadiq is proud of having invested £15 million a year on a violence reduction unit and £7 million on projects combating youth violence. But that pales in comparison to the £130 million this country would pay for the referendum he was marching for. Not to mention the £37 million being spent on policing extinction rebellion.

I know sadiq — he is a father himself, he lives near me and I believe in his heart he is concerned about knife crime. But I was deeply disappointed to see him distracted from what he claims is his top priority, keeping Londoners safe. Last month a teenager was jailed for killing 17-year- old Malcolm Mide- Madariola outside Clapham south station, practically on my doorstep. Malcolm was a peacemaker, standing up for a friend. he was stabbed with a 12 in hunting knife. In the wake of his death I interviewed sadiq on Good Morning Britain. Barely able to hold in my tears, I demanded he tell parents how we could feel our children are safe. he insisted violent crime in the capital was being addressed. I wanted to believe him, but every time a young person is killed, those words ring in my ears.

Knife crime has reached a record high across england and Wales, new figures show, with 44,000 incidents in the year to June — up 7 per cent.

It’s not hard to join the dots on what’s causing this. how could the Government think getting rid of 20,000 frontline police officers across the UK over the past eight years was a good idea? In London, numbers dropped to a 15-year low. The Tories have promised to recruit 20,000 new police officers but that needs to happen fast.

We need a pincer movement to tackle crime — and its causes. restoring police budgets across the country must come first.

We must also invest in young people at risk, to keep them on the straight and narrow. Otherwise gangs are only too happy to step into the gap. Youth clubs are vital as are programmes like Divert, which works with under25s who have been arrested.

The crime against me was fleeting. I lost just a small amount of money, a degree of trust and a raincoat. But I am broken by the agony of those who have suffered the worst. The loss of a child, a sibling, a parent.

To those including sadiq Khan who say solving the epidemic of knife crime will take a generation. sorry, but our children don’t have that long. And they deserve better.