My life was destroyed after my son was stabbed. I can’t help myself. But I can still help others
IT is an agonising story mum Alison Cope is prepared to tell over and over, despite the pain.
She recalls how she kissed her 18-year-old son Joshua goodbye as he went to a memorial bash for a friend who was knifed to death.
Eight hours later Alison watched doctors fight in vain to save Joshua’s life after he was also stabbed – six times in the heart in a fracas at the party.
But she has turned her grief into a force for good. Alison now tells her story to up to 1,000 children a week to put them off knife crime. She insists: “I’m not a campaigner. I’m a mum, a real life person who has lost her child.
“I’d turned Joshua’s life around and he’d become a responsible young person. Now I’m trying to deal with the reality of my life and it will never be OK.
“To lose a child will destroy your life for ever.”
Last week Alison, 42, joined the second Drop the Knife summit held by Crimestoppers and the Sunday Mirror in Birmingham as part of a new blitz on blades. She moved the audience with the story of Joshua’s death outside a club in September 2013. His attacker, Armani Mitchell, got life.
Alison says: “After the murder thousands of young people turned to me with grief and anger at not knowing what to do. I realised I could do nothing to make things better for me, so I chose to help them. Since then I’ve been speaking to kids at schools. They react because they are hearing a mum talk about her son.
“Knife bins won’t make children change their behaviour, you have to make them feel the consequences of using knives.”
Alison has called for funding to expand what she is doing. Local Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, also at the summit, said: “We need to get into schools and work closely together to try to tackle
CRIMESTOPPERS is an independent charity, not part of the police. Anyone with info on knife crime or someone carrying one can contact us anonymously on 0800 555 111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org. We also have a youth programme, Fearless, aimed at ages 11-16 that looks to educate and engage with youngsters. this.” DCI Ian Parnell, West Midlands Police knife crime lead, told the summit his force had tried educating kids and targeting shopkeepers selling blades.
“We’ve made progress but there’s a long way to go,” he said.
Crimestoppers’ Adrian Dudway added: “Knife crime affects communities who may be less likely to have good contact with police. We offer a voice to people who don’t get heard.”