Supporting Young People

Our Story

“At around midnight, we were woken by our daughter, Charlotte, bursting into our bedroom, screaming that James had been stabbed. We cannot begin to adequately describe our feelings of disbelief, absolute panic and horror, between our abrupt waking, hearing Charlotte’s words and arriving at the scene, literally moments later. As we drove into the village and saw the sea of blue flashing lights at the top of the High Street, our hearts dropped into our stomachs, nauseated by the scale of the incident in front of us, and the dreadful and overwhelming realisation that, James’s life was hanging in the balance.
Eventually, we were told that he had died, and were escorted to his body, lying in his own blood, on the pavement where he fell, his chest opened-up by the medics, to allow open heart surgery and direct heart massage. That horrific scene is permanently imprinted in our memories, and is repeatedly played back in our minds, as a waking nightmare.

We live with the unbearable guilt, that we weren’t there at that dreadful moment to defend James, when he needed help; neither were we able to hold him in our arms and comfort him, as his life slipped away. We felt guilty at seeing the sun rise that next morning. We are traumatised and tortured by this on a daily basis.”

Mark Brindley.