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Children as young as eleven will be taught how to stem bleeding as part of an initiative one bereaved mum has described as ‘essential’.
Hundreds of pupils used dummy limbs to learn how to apply pressure, pack wounds and use a tourniquet as part of the ‘Stop the Bleed’ training, which began at schools across Greater Manchester yesterday.
It’s hoped the life-saving scheme - pioneered by Greater Manchester’s violence reduction unit - can be rolled out in secondary schools nationwide next year.
Bosses say the skills learnt can be applied to scenarios such as stabbings, accidental injuries, car accidents and animal attacks with the materials aimed at children in Years 6 and 7.
Kelly Brown - whose son Rhamero West was fatally stabbed in Old Trafford - says she is delighted to hear schoolchildren will now be equipped with skills to save lives. “I feel like it’s needed. I think we should be targeting children in Year 5 and 6 in primary schools,” she says. “I think that’s the perfect age to learn. You never know when there is going to be an incident or if these children will come across something really serious.”
Sixteen-year-old Rhamero was chased by three teenagers and stabbed during an attack in September 2021. Ryan Cashin and Giovanni Lawrence were jailed for life for his murder, while Marquis Richards was sentenced to the youth equivalent of life and locked up for at least 18 years following a crown court trial.
Despite facing unimaginable loss, Kelly has worked tirelessly since Rhamero’s death to raise awareness of knife crime and deter young people from arming themselves. She visits schools to talk to youngsters about the wider impact and has managed to install 31 bleed safety cabinets in locations across Manchester as part of the Mero's World initiative.
She says there is ‘100 per cent’ a knife crime epidemic in Greater Manchester and believes any action to deter the use of weapons and save lives is a positive step. “I go into schools and talk to children about the impact of knife crime and the ripple effect. I get a beautiful reaction to be honest. You get some kids who wait behind afterwards to give you a hug. If I can get through to just one person it will be enough.”
To anyone who is considering carrying a knife, Kelly says: “It’s not worth the ripple effect you are leaving behind. You can ruin so many lives. It’s just not worth it.”
Deputy mayor Kate Green - who also supported the installation of Kelly’s bleed cabinets - says Greater Manchester Combined Authority is proud to be piloting the Stop the Bleed project.
“A priority for the VRU’s work is early intervention to prevent situations where a young person is harmed or bleeding because of a deliberate attack. But unfortunately there are situations when this does happen, and therefore it is vital that young people know how to act,” she says. “Stop the Bleed day will provide young people with necessary skills to act quickly when someone is severely bleeding, which could ultimately save their life.”
Charity citizenAID - which educates people on how to act in multiple casualty incidents - helped develop the training with pupils from Derby High School, in Bury. Pupils there starred in a video which was yesterday shown to 14 schools across the region as they delivered the training.
Lynn Provoost, assistant headteacher at Derby High, says by next week almost the whole school will be trained in bleed training. “It is for any type of bleed, any type of injury,” she says. “From a teaching point of view it’s just one day but they have a totally new life skill now. We want them to be equipped not just with an excellent education but with essential life skills.”
Lynn says violence and serious incidents are ‘on our doorstep unfortunately’ which is why the training is necessary. “We want our young people to be ready for the real world. I believe this kind of training should be part of the National Curriculum.”
The schools are being supported by volunteers including doctors, first aid trainers and personnel from the ambulance and fire and rescue services. Greater Manchester Police officers also took part in the training.
GMP say bleeding is the single most preventable cause of death in cases where someone is injured. Knife crime fell across Greater Manchester by 3.8 per cent in the 12 months to January, but Sergeant Lisa Quinn says ‘much more needs to be done’.
“Part of this involves educating young people, supporting them to make better choices and if necessary, giving them potentially life-saving advice should they ever need it,” she says.
'We literally can't afford black pens at the moment'
“The idea that we leave at 3pm is shocking and laughable,” says English and Drama teacher Beth Farrell. She is one of hundreds of teachers taking strike action today as a bitter row over pay rumbles on.
Beth, who works at Hyde High School, in Tameside, says most teachers work ‘six-day weeks’ and until 5 or 6pm in school after arriving at 7.30am. "We're just overworked, there aren't enough of us. Every single one of my classes are between 25 and 32 children and they are challenging children who will have lots of different needs,” she says. "I don't have a teaching assistant for a class full of special educational needs because we don't have enough resources.
"We literally, in my department, can't afford black pens at the moment. And the government aren't taking any notice. The offer they gave us, of 4.5 percent, which wasn't even fully funded, was disgusting. It would have led to staff cuts from school.
"We can't afford black pens as it is, so we wouldn't have been able to pay teachers that much more out of a school budget. So that's why I'm on strike."
Chris Slater has been talking to teachers on the picket line today. You can read more about their reasons for striking here.
City and United fans reel at strike decision
The United vs City FA Cup final due to take place in London this summer already has fans on tender hooks for obvious reasons. But they’re now facing a double whammy of worry after it was announced train drivers are set to strike that day.
And, as Chris Slater reports, there are fears there could now be a shortage of coaches for fans and chaos on the motorways and at service stations with even more fans having to travel to the capital by road.
Thousands of the fans from Manchester were expected to travel to the capital by rail, But train driver’s union Aslef this morning announced they had rejected the 'risible' latest offer from the 16 train companies they are in dispute with and announced three new days of planned industrial, including on cup final day. And the union confirmed Avanti West Coast, which runs trains to London Euston from Manchester Piccadilly, was one of the 16 operators due to be affected.
Kevin Parker, general secretary of the Manchester City Official Supporters Club told Chris the impact will be ‘absolutely massive’. "It will affect, sadly, City and United fans who have already booked trains. But also those who haven't but who were planning to travel that way,” he says.
The Manchester United Supporter's Trust says a strike will be ‘a huge inconvenience’. "We need all modes of transport available to cope with the level of demand and the railways are a key part of that. We call on the Government and the trade union to get round the table and find a way to avert this industrial action,” they said.
Rent strikers 'won't stop'
The students carrying out a rent strike say they 'will not stop until they win' and claim more have joined their cause.
Protesters barricaded themselves inside a University of Manchester building for five weeks in a protest over rent prices last month. As Ethan Davies reports, they have been refusing to pay their accommodation fees since January and are calling for a 30 per cent rent reduction or rebate for this year. They also want a rent freeze across university digs for at least three years and for at least 40 per cent of university accommodation to cost less than half of the maximum student maintenance loan within the next three years.
They say more than 350 people have refused to pay rent since January and an additional 300 have also been withholding fees in recent weeks.
The university says those figures are 'wholly inaccurate'. Bosses say disciplinary action is being taken against a 'small group' of students who had been involved in 'the illegal occupations of university buildings over many weeks'.
New inquest for Makki family
A coroner today held a pre-inquest review into the 2019 death of teenager Yousef Makki. Manchester Grammar School pupil Yousef, 17, was fatally stabbed by his friend Joshua Molnar, in Hale Barns, on March 2, 2019.
Molnar, then aged 17, told a jury he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Yousef through the heart on Gorse Bank Road. He said Yousef had pushed him and pulled a knife first - he went on to be acquitted of murder and manslaughter following a trial. But he was handed a 16-month detention and training order after admitting possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and lying to police at the scene at his 2019 trial.
Adam Chowdhary, 17 at the time of the stabbing, was acquitted after a trial of perverting the course of justice. He was given a four-month detention order after admitting possession of a flick knife, one of two he claimed he and Yousef had jointly ordered online during a break from lessons at Manchester Grammar School.
The Makki family fought for and won an inquest in 2021, at which Molnar said he couldn't remember who pulled a knife first. The coroner, Alison Mutch, recorded a 'narrative verdict' after hearing evidence, saying the 'precise circumstances' surrounding his stabbing could not be 'ascertained'. Yousef's family had pressed for a verdict of unlawful killing, but Ms Mutch said that standard had not been met.
In January, High Court judges quashed the decision of the original inquest and have directed a fresh inquest before a different coroner.
The first pre-inquest review since that decision was held today at Stockport Coroners Court in front of Geraint Williams and crime reporter John Scheerhout was there. The coroner has listed a full inquest to begin on Monday October 23 at a venue yet to be confirmed.
Both Molnar and Chowdhary appeared voluntarily at the original inquest. The coroner today refused a submission made on behalf of both men for no live evidence to be heard at the new inquest. He said in his opinion, there were ‘many questions that were not asked’ and he himself has questions.
He said Molnar and Chowdhary are ‘central’ to the case and he will require ‘nothing less than medical evidence that they are unfit to attend and give evidence in person’ before he can release them.
Row over ‘open sewer’
Dreams of a new community woodland in Stockport are facing a major hurdle.
Councillors in the town claim United Utilities allowed an ‘open sewer’ to ruin a field near Otterspool Road, in Romiley, which was earmarked for the project. They say sewage damage has stopped plans to plant new woodland after surveys showed the soil could now be too toxic for trees, as Nick Statham reports.
Coun Lisa Smart, who chairs the Werneth area committee, is calling on UU to apologise for the ‘destruction’ that has been caused. But the water company says flooding from a pipe into a manhole following heavy rain only affected a small area of the field. It has now carried out repair work at the site.
Bosses insist claims that this had ruined the field were ‘false’ and the need for a ‘buffer zone’ around the sewer pipe and naturally ‘boggy’ nature of the land would have also placed constraints on tree planting.
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Weather etc
Friday: Heavy rain changing to cloudy by lunchtime. 14C.
Road closures: A662 Pollard Street, New Islington, in both directions closed due to roadworks from Boond Street to A665 Great Ancoats Street. Until May 10.
Manchester headlines
More masks: Last month, Labour councillor Pat Karney warned of 'flare ups' at polling stations if voters are turned away over new voter ID rules. He then wore a faceless mask at a town hall meeting to warn about the issue. Since then he’s taken to social media to promote the message, joined by fellow Harpurhey councillors also wearing masks. And yesterday the trio featured in another video with a warning for voters - this time wearing black Zorro-style eye masks. “Next week on polling day, you will need facial ID to get your vote. If you haven't got that they won't allow you to vote,” Coun Karney says. Coun Joanne Green then continues: "So make sure you've got a plan as to which facial ID that you are going to take with you."
Stepped down: The director of Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust has stepped down 'with immediate effect' over comments he made on social media. The trust said it condemned Maqsood Ahmad's since-deleted remarks on Twitter 'in the strongest possible terms'. Mr Ahmad had served as a non-executive director of the mental health trust since December 2021. In a statement Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust said it has a zero-tolerance approach to ‘any form of prejudice or racism and the views expressed in no way reflect the views or values of our organisation’. According to Mr Ahmad's now-deleted profile on the Pennine Care website he has also held roles as director for equality and inclusion at NHS England and as head of equalities for policing at the Home Office.
Tribunal: A motorist has managed to dodge a fine for driving through Manchester’s divisive bus gate - but others won't be able to. The driver won a traffic tribunal with Manchester Council. He was handed a fine for driving through the Bridge Street bus gate - which opened at the end of last year - on February 20, 2023. “I looked at the video and it was clear as day,” he explained. “I drove through it, there was no excuse.” However, after heading to the area to see how he could have made such a mistake, the driver, from Oldham, found out he had not missed a sign before the start of the bus gate - because there weren’t any. “From certain approaches, there’s no excuse - but coming from the car park, there are no signs whatsoever,” he continued. That goes against official guidance, according to the motorist's tribunal claim. Council officers did not contest his case at the tribunal, so his fine was cancelled. Signs have since been installed.
Supermarket: Plans to open a new Lidl store in Stockport have been withdrawn following ‘significant delays’ and concerns from Stockport Council. According to local councillors, it is ‘no longer viable' for the supermarket chain to go ahead with the plans for the store, which was due to be built on the site of the former Fir Tree pub on Gorton Road in Reddish. Councillors in Reddish North claim the plans, which were first announced in 2021, were withdrawn ‘due to the extent of changes required to address the council’s concerns’. The supermarket had been pushing to extend its car park area into North Reddish Park, but the plans were rejected by councillors. More here.
Worth a read
This weekend, a new event in the heart of the city seeks to change hip hop’s standing within Manchester. Street Heat 2 will be held at the Old Naval Yard in Ancoats to show off the best in hip hop music, street arts, fashion, sneakers, street food and drink.
Ethan Davies has been speaking to Sefton Mottley, a community leader in Moss Side and Hulme, who was a teenager when Mancunian hip hop came to the fore. “It came into Manchester via youth clubs,” he says. “We had DJ Johnny J in Abraham Moss, he went around Manchester doing under-18 events playing that kind of electro and soul music. In Wythenshawe you had Owen D playing Baguley Hall.
“You had Playboys playing Proctors in Hulme, and Leaky Fresh played at Longsight youth club. You also had Greg Wilson. He was dropping electro in Legends, a club on Princess Street - the city’s first million pound basement nightclub. It has a revolving dance floor, amazing lighting. That was on a Wednesday night.”
You can read more about the city’s hip hop scene here.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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