A community have come together to install a life-saving bleed kit at a busy shopping centre. The kit is being installed at the site of a non-fatal stabbing in a 'frenzied' attack last August in Middleton.
It is the latest of many to be installed across the city-region this year.
The bleed kit has come from the Daniel Baird Foundation who work to raise the awareness of how bleed kits can save the lives of those bleeding heavily, in memory of Daniel Baird who was fatally stabbed in Birmingham in 2017. Bleed kits contain instructions on how to help should someone be bleeding heavily and includes equipment to help stem blood flow during the wait for paramedics to arrive.
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The kit was unveiled near one of the entrances to Middleton Shopping Centre on Thursday (September 1) afternoon with local councillors, police, and volunteers from the Daniel Baird Foundation there to see the latest life saving kit installed in Greater Manchester. Sicarius McGrath, an ex-OCG leader who now campaigns against knife crime and keeping children out of violence, was key in getting the kit installed.
He said: "I initially spoke to a local Middleton Independent councillor about the kit and the great work the Daniel Baird Foundation does in raising awareness of these life saving kits and how they can educate young people away from knife crime and the lives that they can save. They then pushed for one to be installed in Middleton and a company called Borg Locks helped us to get it onto the wall.
"It's the first to be installed in Middleton and Rochdale as a whole but I'm determined we can get many more out there. They are vitally important and have saved many lives across the country.
"We've seen a big rise in knife crime in north Manchester and across the rest of the city which shows how much these kits are needed, we've even seen an increase in gun crime in the north west too. They really ought to be in every town centre across Greater Manchester and beyond.
"Each kit only costs £90 so many businesses could donate to a great cause and have these installed to save lives near them."
A number of similar kits have been installed in other areas of Greater Manchester over recent months after young lives were tragically lost. Stretford, Withington, and Fallowfield all have kits after Rhamero West and Kennie Carter, both 16, were killed just months apart.
Rhamero West was fatally stabbed in Old Trafford in September last year with his family campaigning ever since to address knife crime amongst young people and to install bleed kits in the community. This was followed by Kennie Carter's mother, Joan Dixon, installing a bleed kit in Stretford after her son was fatally stabbed in January of this year, with the grief stricken parents of both campaigning to have more installed across the city-region.
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