Sutton Coldfield mum recalls being pregnant and stabbed

On 3 March 2016, Natalie Queiroz shared a picture on social media of her rapidly growing baby bump. She was eight months pregnant and looking forward to the birth of her daughter and life with partner Babur "Bobby" Raja. Twenty-four hours later she was being flown by air ambulance to hospital. She had been stabbed more than 20 times, and paramedics feared for the lives of both her and her unborn child.

Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the attack, I met Natalie at the scene - Trinity Hill in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.

Her hands were shaking and she described being back as "really, really tough", adding: "To think this could have been the final place I would have been [alive]." Revisiting the scene has become part of how she has dealt with the trauma.

Natalie, 45, remembers most of what happened vividly. It was raining, she had her coat pulled up and was holding an umbrella as she walked towards the town centre. Her mind was on shopping.

"I just remember these footsteps running behind me," she said. She feared she was about to be mugged, but felt she was safe because she was such a short distance from the shops, and, as it was 15:00, there were plenty of people about. That's when her attacker jumped her from behind and began stabbing her.

She desperately held on to her bump to try to protect her baby, but described the attack as "incessant". Two men intervened and tried to drag the attacker off her, incurring injuries themselves.

Natalie didn't know who the knifeman was. Raja, her partner, had disguised his appearance and had a hood covering his face. She told me that she caught a glimpse and thought it was him, but then disregarded the idea.

Babur Raja was disguised when he unleashed a stab attack on pregnant partner Natalie Queiroz

As the others fought with Raja, Natalie tried to escape. Despite bleeding heavily she managed to get to her feet and stagger away. "I was looking at the town centre… and I remember thinking 'I've just got to get there, because if I can get there, I can get help'."

Her wounds were too severe and she collapsed next to a wall and passed out. "The two guys who'd been holding the attacker said they thought that I'd gone - they thought that that was it, that I had died."

Raja managed to fight off the other men and came at Natalie again just as she regained consciousness. "I put my head down and he pulled up in front of me, and he crouched down and he began the attack again."

Natalie doesn't remember much of what happened next. A third rescuer, Callum Gibson, had run up Trinity Hill and joined the other men, John Mitchell and Anthony Smith, in finally stopping Raja's attack. West Midlands Police officers arrived to help, and closed nearby roads to allow an air ambulance to land.

Natalie had suffered eleven chest wounds, her right lung had collapsed and she had also been stabbed in the liver and uterus.

'Almost incomprehensible'

Paramedics stabilised her as she was taken to hospital. Natalie had regained consciousness again, but there seemed to be little hope for her child. "To be honest, we all thought she'd passed away," she said.

Natalie underwent lifesaving surgery and was put into an induced coma. It was only when she came round that she was given the news her daughter had survived and had been safely delivered by Caesarean section. "To get that news, that she was alive, was almost incomprehensible."

In June 2016, Raja pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to attempted murder and was jailed for 18 years. During the hearing, at which Natalie was present, the court heard he attacked her after being forced to choose between his conservative Muslim mother's faith and the "love of his life". This, it was said, had "tipped him over the edge".

Raja is serving an 18-year prison sentence

A court order remains in place meaning that Natalie's daughter cannot be named. On Thursday, the family has been celebrating her fifth birthday. It will be impossible to keep the full details of the story from the little girl forever. As she grows up, Natalie is gradually explaining to her what happened, but she doesn't know everything yet.

"She's a funny little girl with a big heart... she knows that mummy got hurt the day she was born, she knows it was very serious, and that mummy went in a helicopter... she knows that because of what happened she had to be born that day."

• Latest news from the West Midlands

• Stab attack mum meets fiancé through charity work

Natalie is amazingly upbeat despite what happened. She still suffers physically because of some of her wounds, but jokes that her breast implants saved her life. She has also visited Raja in prison despite being warned against it.

She said it was a cathartic experience. "I needed to face him and I needed to look him in the eye." However he still wouldn't fully acknowledge what happened. He has also sent her letters in which he said he was "proud" of the way she had dealt with the attack. She sees this as an attempt at controlling behaviour.

Natalie Queiroz is set to marry Simon Lyttle after the end of Covid restrictions

I asked her whether she ever thought she would be able to achieve closure.

"Anyone who's been through a major trauma will say you never get over it, you learn to live with it and it becomes part of your life. I've dealt with it by all my fundraising and talking to young people about the reality of knife crime… to me that's the best way of coming to terms with everything."

Natalie's positivity is clear in the work she's undertaken since the attack. She has already raised tens of thousands of pounds for Midlands Air Ambulance and is to walk the 140 miles between its three bases in four days as soon as it is possible.

She also has something else to look forward to. Last year she got engaged to Simon Lyttle, a fellow fundraiser, and once lockdown is over they will be married.