A grieving mum who is "serving a life sentence" of her own has pledged to make a change after her son was killed.
Daniel Gee-Jamieson, 16, lay bleeding out in his mother's arms after he sustained a fatal stab wound at a park just off Belle Vale Road in Gateacre. Devastatingly, as the colour drained from his face, he told his mum "I just want to go to sleep."
Talking to the ECHO, mum Mandy recalled the horrifying moment she received a knock on the door before "chaos" ensued. Watching another woman with her "hands inside Daniel to stop the bleeding", she said it was "horrific" to see.
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Since that tragic day on July 3, 2018, mum Mandy has pledged to make a change, in the hopes of not allowing another family to go through what she has been through. Mandy has since created Danny's Place in memory of her boy as she aims to crack down and raise awareness of the devastating impact knife crime can have on families.
She has launched a petition calling for a maximum sentence for those found carrying a knife. Already at 900 signatures, that can be found here.
She has also teamed up with the Ava White Foundation to share a petition in the hopes of getting bleed packs available for the public. These bleed packs would allow people to try and stop bleeding caused by a weapon while paramedics arrive.
Mandy said: "We need maximum sentences and bleed kits, if we had bleed kits then, my son would still be here. Unless it happens to you, you don't get it, but I don't anyone else to be in that situation.
"People think it will never happen to them but kids are getting killed. My son bled out in my arms, I watched the blood drain from his face, I watched him die.
"I didn't think it would happen, I never thought for one minute I'd be putting my son in a box in Allerton Cemetery, but it can happen to anyone so if we could make a change it would mean the world to us.
"We had our children taken. Every day is a battle but we need our city behind us so that Danny and Ava's deaths weren't for nothing."
Pleading for support, she added: "I really wish we could move on, but it's not something you can get over. My son wasn't sick, he had his whole life ahead of him and I'll never see him grow up. It doesn't go away, it never does and I don't want anyone to walk in our shoes.
"It takes a village to raise a child so Liverpool needs to come together and stand up to these thugs, please, it takes a couple of minutes to sign."
For years, Mandy said her son had been "relentlessly bullied" when one day he decided to put an end to it all. She added: "He asked for a straightener and he won the fight, but he was stabbed and it was a catastrophic bleed.
"Daniel just wanted peace in his life. He was a mummy's boy and I'm not ashamed to say I loved every minute of that."
But more recently, she has spoken in the House of Commons, in the hopes of making a change for the victim families after a horrific crime has been committed. She told the ECHO: "We need to support victim families and that's what SAMM National aims to do, without them, I'd probably be in jail myself now. It was an honour to be asked to speak, I did it for all victim families.
"People need to start listening to what we are saying, one example is referring to the deceased in court like they didn't exist, but he did exist. And once a trial is over, you're sort of left to get on with it.
"There just needs to be more support. When your child is taken, you're completely lost. If I didn't get support from SAMM I'd have spiralled, I had nothing to lose."
More information about SAMM National can be found here. CEO Jo Early said they were calling for change for the grieving families.
She added: "People are still having terrible experiences with the criminal justice system, from the way they are treated in court, the support they get, getting funerals delayed, all of these things mean they aren't getting the support they need.
"We need families to be right at the heart of the change and we want their support needs met." The full report and reasons for change can be found here.
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