Essex Grandmother to put on 'angel walk' in memory of murdered grandson
She'll be joined by the families of other murder victims
The grandmother of a 19 year old man from Essex who was murdered is organising an 'angel walk' in his memory.
19 year old Liam Taylor was murdered outside a pub in Writtle on 31st January 2020. Three men were jailed for the killing last year.
Now, his grandmother Julie Taylor, from Chelmsford, has organised a walk in his honour.
On 17th September, Julie, and other members of Liam's family will be joined by other murder victims' families. Together, they will walk from St Mary's Church in Great Baddow to Chelmsford Cathedral, where pictures of those they've lost will be on display, and a memorial service will take place.
Julie told us: "People don't understand. They feel sorry for the family and think we've suffered but that because it's been a year we must be getting over it, but you don't get over it.
"The pain gets worse every single day because we've had his 21st birthday, we've got his 25th, and his 30th. He's not going to get married or have children - we have to cope with all those milestones.
"He shouldn't have been murdered. It's that simple...
"We've got about seventeen families of murder victims walking with us, all in loving memory."
Bleed kits
Recently we spoke to Julie about her fundraising, which has seen over one hundred potentially life-saving bleed kits placed across the county.
Since Liam's death, his Grandmother has been working to make sure no one else suffers the same fate.
In the last year, the Liam Taylor Legacy, set up by Julie, has raised over ÂŁ16,000, enough money for 2 defibrillators, 7 24-hour control units and 101 bleed bags, each containing bandages, a tourniquet, blanket and chest seal, which will help treat stab victims or anyone suffering from catastrophic bleeds, until an ambulance arrives.
She's now campaigning to get them placed in local businesses and locations across the county, and eventually, the whole country: "You can bleed to death within three minutes, so the main thing is getting these kits in every single premises, every pub, school, shop, nightclub, anywhere where there's youths or could be accidents.
"They need to be no more than 3 minutes apart, and hopefully they can be absolutely everywhere."
Julie knew she wanted to do something to help, following Liam's death, and came across Lynne Baird and her campaign to roll bleed bags out at more than 50 venues in Birmingham after her son, Daniel, 26, was stabbed to death in 2017: "When you have such a tragedy, you come out thinking 'how can I help people?'... I was just going through the internet one day and came across Lynn Baird... had this equipment been on site her son probably wouldn't have died... once I saw that I knew this is what I've got to do."
She says the pain of losing Liam doesn't get any easier, but hopes her efforts will make a difference: "I don't want to be doing this. I have so many friends that I've met through the knife crime world, and I wish I never met any of them. I wish I didn't know them.
"People don't understand. They feel sorry for the family and think we've suffered but that because it's been a year we must be getting over it, but you don't get over it.
"The pain gets worse every single day because we've had his 21st birthday, we've got his 25th, and his 30th. He's not going to get married or have children - we have to cope with all those milestones.
"He shouldn't have been murdered. It's that simple. So many things have got to change...
"I've just got this passion. I must save somebody. If somebody else is saved from going through this because of us losing Liam, it will just ease the pain very, very slightly."