Exclusive: Bleed control kits planned where Birmingham teenagers were killed

A campaign has started to install bleed control kits in the areas of Birmingham where teenagers have either been killed or critically injured this year.

The kits contain specialist equipment which members of the public can use on wounds to stop catastrophic bleeding until emergency services arrive on the scene. They were created by local charity, The Daniel Baird Foundation, following the fatal stabbing of Daniel Baird in 2017.

A fundraiser for £2,000 has been launched to buy four of the bleed control kits and place them in parts of the city where young people have lost their lives, or been left with serious injuries. They'll be fitted in areas including Quinton, Kingstanding, where 14 year old Dea-John Reid was stabbed to death in May 2021, and two roads in Handsworth where 15 year old Keon Lincoln was shot and stabbed near his home in January 2021.

Earlier this week a 14 year old gunman was jailed, along with three others, for murdering Keon Lincoln on Linwood Road. A 19 year old was jailed for his manslaughter.

Two men and three teenagers are due to go on trial next year for the murder of Dea-John Reid who was fatally attacked on College Road.

Campaigner Michelle Helsby told us; "One bleed control kit can save someone's life. It can save someone from burying their child. One piece of kit can stop someone from bleeding out before emergency services get there.

Speaking just a few weeks after a 13 year old boy was shot in the back in Hockley Circus, Michelle says it's sad that it's come to this;

"That 13 year old child who got shot the other day, there was no bleed control cabinet there...So if these things are in these areas, there is a chance we can save lives and families.

I feel like we, as a community, we're being let down. We can't keep losing our kids like this, whose child is next?"

You can find a link to the fundraiser here.