Prime Ministers Office 10 Downing Street
My motto is if I can prevent one young person losing their life then its all worth it to me.
Ive been stabbed a total of 18 times on two separate occasions. One attack left me in a coma and I suffered severe nerve damage that required years of rehabilitation.
I had to rebuild my life physically, mentally and emotionally.
FazAmnesty, my organisation that helps young people hand in their knives with no questions asked, began with my mentoring work as well as doing online awareness videos on social media. Then one day a group of boys brought knives to my nieces party and demanded entry.
I went down to the party and managed to take three knives from the boys in question.
It was then that I realised I had to find a way to make this an ongoing practice. Day by day, year by year FazAmnesty grew, and ever since then Ive become inundated with requests for weapons collections and other services.
I remember one day in 2018 I got a phone call from a private number and it was Idris Elbas PA. She told me that Idris was starting a campaign called Dont Stop Your Future and he wanted me to be a part of it.
24 hours later I was in Enfield with Idris conducting a weapons collection and ever since then weve kept up this close connection, working on various projectstogether.
This weeks roundtable feels like a positive move in the right direction in the fight against knife crime. It felt like there was a positive energy in the room with all the people involved.
I feel the policies put forward are helping to target key areas that need to be addressed if we want to reduce the impacts of knife crime. So, Im happy to see these discussions formulating and witnessing so many organisations from different parts of society coming together to put actions in place.
The highlight for me was the fact that this event and the new coalition being introduced has happened within a really short time of the government being in power.
It almost feels like the work that Ive done through FazAmnesty has got me to a position where I can be part of conversations such as these and it makes me feel proud of the work Ive done.
I am both appreciative of, and humbled by, the government and the Elba Hope Foundation. Theyve given me the opportunity to share my work and make me part of the process, enabling me to work more effectively a