Wallsend stab victim's mum backs bus ad knife campaign

Carly Barrett and Alison Madgin lost Samantha when she was fatally stabbed in 2007

The mother of an 18-year-old girl who was fatally stabbed when she tried to break up a fight has backed a new knife crime campaign.

Alison Madgin's daughter Samantha was killed in Wallsend, North Tyneside, in 2007.

She was just a mile away from her home when the attack happened, and had given birth to her son several weeks before.

Posters of unanswered texts to show the loss of loved ones are being printed on billboards and about 150 buses.

Some of the messages, which have been produced by Northumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner's Violence Reduction Unit, show texts saying "I miss you so much".

School children and young people have helped design the campaign.

Samantha Madgin was enjoying a night out for the first time since giving birth when she was killed

Ms Madgin said: "As soon as I saw the message on this bus - 'I miss you' - it made me feel very emotional.

"Because that is a message I feel everyday - 'I miss you' - but I can never get a reply from that message.

"But seeing the message on the campaign that's come from young people, who have listened, who do want to make a difference, this is their voice being heard which can only be a good [thing]."

Samantha's sister Carly Barrett, who was 16 when she died, added it had "affected us in many ways".

"I lost a bit of my mam when we lost Samantha, Samantha's son grew up without his mother," she said.

"We're having to fight everyday... you're up and down like a rollercoaster. It's a vicious cycle of grieving her every single day and just living life without her."

The family of 18-year-old Connor Brown, who was stabbed to death in Sunderland in 2019, also attended the launch earlier.

The "Knives Impact Everyone" campaign has been designed to highlight the consequences carrying knives can have.

The adverts also explain how the consequences can have an impact on everybody - including family, friends, communities and emergency crews.

The adverts will appear on 150 buses across the North East

"Knives affect everybody, crimes like this affect everybody and the onward trail of destruction that's created," Kim McGuiness, Northumbria's PCC, said.

"We're telling that story through text messages in a way that young people talk to each other."

In recent years, a number of teenagers have been fatally wounded across north-east England.

In 2021, 18-year-old Jack Woodley died after being stabbed in Houghton-le-Spring, while Gateshead teenager Tomasz Oleszak, 14, was stabbed to death in October, last year.

Several weeks later, stabbed Newcastle teenager Gordon Gault, also 14, died a number of days after being wounded and earlier this year, 15-year-old Holly Newton died after being injured in Hexham.

Ms McGuiness said: "I don't want to see another family go through the devastation of losing a loved one to knife crime.

"We've seen some incredibly brave families go through the unthinkable and we must put our all into stopping history repeating itself."