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Event teaches young people to save stab victims

Matt Treacy & Emily Ford
BBC News, Slough
BBC Innat and Hanan stand in a park. The background is blurred, but there is grass, a small children's climbing frame play area and trees lining the edge of the park. The girls both look at the camera. Innat wears a black hijab, with a black hooded puffer coat and a pale grey zipped sweatshirt underneath. Hanan also wears a black hijab, with a hooded black puffer jacket and a black buttoned blouse underneath.BBC
Innat (left) and Hanan (right) both said the event teaching them emergency first aid was helpful

A teenager who witnessed her friend being stabbed has praised a "reassuring" event teaching young people emergency first aid.

Paramedics from South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) visited a youth event in Slough to help teenagers respond to stab wounds.

The event, organised in partnership with charity Together As One, involved showing young people how to stem catastrophic bleeding and give CPR.

Innat, 15, who witnessed a stabbing, said the event showed knife crime was a "really deep concern" in the area.

The event came after figures from the Office of National Statistics revealed there were 50,000 incidents of knife crime reported across the UK in 2024.

Two paramedics wearing forest green uniform, decorated with an NHS badge, the SCAS logo and shoulder panels are talking to young people at the event. The female paramedic with brown hair tied in a ponytail has her hands in her pockets and looks towards the floor, while her male colleague, who wears a green beanue hat and has a ginger beard, is kneeling on the floor while he talks. Standing in front of them both is a young woman, who wears a brown hijab and long black hooded puffer coat, she is looking towards the floor where the male paramedic is.
Paramedics showed young people at the event how to treat catastrophic bleedings and give CPR

SCAS paramedic manager Ian Sayer said more than 2,000 incidents happened in their area last year.

"Unfortunately it's something we are well versed in dealing with," he said.

"On average in our region we probably deal with about four to five incidents a day involving knives, stabbings, people injured by bladed articles deliberately.

"If someone's got a catastrophic bleed - it's the basics that can save that person. We can raise awareness and get people to step up and help."

'People think they'll be lucky'

Innat's friend has since recovered after being stabbed and she said these skills would have been useful.

"The fact I wasn't able to do anything, just stand there and watch and wait for police to arrive, it wasn't nice," she said.

"If more people are aware of how dangerous it can be, I think it will help majorly. People always think they're going to be lucky, but there are concerns out there and you need to be safe."

Hanan, 16, added: "It put it into perspective more. I haven't personally experienced it, I know things happen, but it depends on the situation you're in."

Young women sit watching as two paramedics demonstrate CPR on a dummy. The women are sat in a row in a community hall. One wears a brown hijab, with a black puffer coat, wool long dress and black lace up heeled boots, next to her a young women wears a grey hijab with a black collared puffer coat. There are two other women who's faces are just out of vision as they look away from the camera to watch the paramedics. The paramedics both wear forest green uniform, which has the word 'Ambulance' across the back. A female paramedic with brown hair tied back in a ponytail has both her palms pressing down on a dummy's chest demonstrating CPR, while her male colleague can be seen in the background looking at the young women.
South Central Ambulance Service was called out to more than 2,000 reports of knife crime in the last year

Together As Once has operated in Slough for more than 20 years to reduce gang crime.

CEO Rob Deeks said: "The perception is knife crime is a big problem and unfortunately young people have lost their lives to knife crime in recent years here in Slough, so it does weigh heavily on people's minds.

"What's important is we work together as a town to keep young people safe. People on the front lines in this situation are so determined to do something."

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