Bleed kit installed outside church on busy road

An emergency first aid kit which could be used to save the lives of knife attack victims has been installed in a busy road in Leicester.

The kit, funded through a charity football match organised by community organisations Ditch The Knife and the Brotherhood Legion, is now available outside the Robert Hall Memorial Baptist Church.

It contains a haemostatic gauze, tourniquet, large trauma dressing, gloves, trauma shears, a marker pen and an instruction card.

Ditch The Knife founder Tyler Draycott, from Leicester, said: "These kits stem the gap from the incident to the emergency services arriving."

Mr Draycott was motivated to start Ditch the Knife after his own experience with knife crime.

"A man called Kieron Moore lost his life 50 yards from my house because of knife crime," he said.

"I have a young son and a daughter and it just gave me this realisation that I needed to teach my kids what is right and wrong."

Mr Moore was 20 when he was stabbed following an argument which "evolved into a fight" in Marriott Road, Aylestone, in November 2021.

Mason Mills, then of Boulter Crescent in Wigston, was convicted of his murder and jailed for a minimum of 21 years in 2023.

"This latest kit is our fifth one we have personally put out. That is a really proud achievement," added Mr Draycott.

Reiss Thomson, founder of the Brotherhood Legion, added: "Youth club numbers are down and kids don't have anywhere to put their energy. Higher powers have a responsibility to tackle this (knife crime)."

There are 15 emergency bleed control kits in Leicestershire, which can also be used on people who are suffering catastrophic blood loss following an accident.

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