Sunderland parents Tanya and Simon Brown support Knives Impact Everyone campaign launch in North East

Sunderland Echo

The parents of murdered Sunderland teenager Connor Brown joined Northumbria Police Commissioner Kim McGuinness at the launch of the Knives Impact Everyone Campaign at Newcastle's Stagecoach Bus Depot

Transcript

00:00 Hello, I'm Kevin Clark and we're here at Stagecordia's depot in Newcastle for the launch of a new

00:04 advertising campaign highlighting the threat of knife crime.

00:07 We're here with the parents of Connor Brown, the Sunderland teenager who died after he

00:10 was stabbed in the city centre, and Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness for

00:14 the launch of the campaign which will see adverts on buses across the town and way.

00:18 What is it that brings you here today?

00:19 Our son.

00:20 Connor is the reason we do what we do.

00:21 He's our goal, he's our driving force behind everything that we do.

00:22 And it's our love for him.

00:23 And also the fact that we just don't want any more.

00:30 We don't want any more victims of knife crime.

00:36 It isn't just about the victim, it is about everyone.

00:40 And they really need to think about that, they really need to kind of look at themselves

00:45 and what they want out of life.

00:47 Is this the life that they want?

00:50 Because I don't think it will be.

00:51 So they need to think about themselves.

00:53 It's not just your family that's been devastated by the events of that night?

00:57 No.

00:58 So many.

00:59 So many.

01:00 You tell them on television on a daily basis now, and down the country it's another one,

01:04 and another one, and another one, and you just...

01:08 Really we should just curl up and cry, but we're going to carry on.

01:13 We're going to still continue with our message, because as we say many, many times before,

01:19 even if we only say one, we've accomplished something.

01:23 Nothing's ever going to bring Connor back obviously, but does supporting Spanish bring

01:26 you some comfort?

01:28 It does.

01:30 Just working with other families, working with Police Crime Commissioner Kim Guinness

01:34 and the Violence Reduction Unit, just knowing that we are having that impact, it really

01:40 does give us that motivation to keep going.

01:44 And we do see some positive stories as well.

01:47 We see some positive outcomes.

01:49 It isn't all about bad news.

01:51 There is more good people than there is bad people, and we just need to keep driving that

01:57 message across.

01:58 Knives Impact Everyone, that's the name of the campaign that we're launching here today,

02:02 and you can see on the back of the bus here.

02:04 And it's about telling the stories about how in the aftermath of a knife crime, the impact

02:09 is felt by the family of the victim, by the friendship groups, by the family of the perpetrator.

02:14 And we're telling that story in a way that young people have told us they need to see

02:18 it in the places where they spend their time.

02:20 So we're specifically targeting the kind of people who are most likely to be carrying

02:23 a weapon?

02:24 We're specifically targeting young people with the message that the choice to pick up

02:28 a knife or not can really mean the difference between life and death, and the impact that

02:34 that decision has on everyone.

02:36 And we've got some people here today whose lives have been impacted by knife violence.

02:39 How important is it to you to have their support?

02:41 Well I've worked for a long time now with Samantha's Legacy and with the Connor Brown

02:46 Trust and the work that they do is utterly selfless.

02:48 They go into schools, into youth clubs, into anywhere really that will listen to tell the

02:54 stories of the impact that losing a loved one to knife crime has had on them.

02:59 And that is such a vital message to get across to young people and I'm so incredibly grateful

03:03 to them.

03:04 But also, having these campaigns is so important to these families because they never want

03:09 to see anybody go through what they've been through ever again.

03:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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