The sister of murdered schoolgirl Ava White says her grief fuels her determination to stop children carrying knives.
Ava, 12, was stabbed with a flick-knife by a 14-year-old known as Boy A in Liverpool. Her family now runs the Ava White Foundation, with the aim of preventing knife crime.
Sister Mia, 19, said they have already put resources such as bleed packs around the city.
She is keen to speak in schools to pupils, to help them understand the horrific consequences of carrying blades.
She said: “Every single day, I always go to ring Ava and text her just to see what she’s doing. I don’t think it’s ever going to sink in.
“It needs to start at a really young age, wanting to engage. Because why would you ever want to ruin someone else’s life and your own?
“No-one should be going through what we’re going through. But if I can stop one child from putting a knife in the pocket...”
Mia said for Ava’s friends and family, what happened will “stick with them for the rest of their lives”.
She added: “The danger you put yourself in when you put a knife in your pocket. I want to get the message out to stop it.”
Liverpool crown court heard Ava and her friends argued with her killer and three of his friends after they recorded Snapchat videos of them after a Christmas lights switch-on event last November.
The boy, now 15, said he thought Ava was a boy, who might be armed, and “batter” him. But Ava’s friends said he “grinned” after knifing her. He carefully discarded his 3in knife and took off his coat, which was found in a bin.
He told police “I’m not bothered” and told one officer: “Shut up you nonce.” He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 13 years in July.
Mia told the BBC her family still see Ava everywhere, especially when around her peers.
She added: “It’s so hard for me and my mum to be around the nieces and nephews because they’re all Ava’s age and all hung out together. She would always make them laugh.”
“It’s so different now, you can tell something is missing in the family.”
