‘Think about the impact it has on people’ – Heartbroken mum of Sheffield stabbing victim’s message as week-long knife crime operation continues

The woman, who only wished to be referred to as Simone, said she was told her son had been stabbed in an incident in the city last year.

She said: “On the night that it happened, I’d got in from work and I tried to call him and then about 15 minutes after that I got a phone call from his girlfriend’s mum telling me that he had been stabbed.

“I was just quite numb, I was in shock and I don’t think the words had registered properly what was happening and what had happened.”

The mum was speaking as South Yorkshire Police join a week-long operation to raise awareness of the devastating consequences of carrying a weaponacross the county.

Officers will be carrying out open land seaches, introducing knife arches in schools and carrying out extra street patrols all week.

The mother said: “When I went through and saw him for the first time, I just thought it can’t be that bad until the doctors came to see him and they removed his bandage, that’s when I relaised how bad it actually was.

“I came out of the cubicle because I couldn't be in there and see what they’d done. There was a lot of blood and one of the wounds was quite open.

“I was just heartbroken because all I could picture was that it was my baby and it’s always going to be my baby and just seeing what someone had done, I will just never forget.”

The mum said the attack will live with her son and her family ‘forever’ and pleaded with those carrying weapons to think of the consequences.

She added: “It's just really out of control at the minute. I just wish that these young people who are leaving the house and carrying knives just stopped for a minute and thought about the impact that it has on people.

“I think if you’re going to use a knife you’ve got to realise there is always that risk of killing someone because it only takes putting it in the wrong place and that’s it – you have taken someone’s life, you’ve ruined a lot of people's lives and then potentilally ruined your own life.”

Asked about how her son was now, she said: “Physically, he’s made a lot of progress but mentally it’s affected him more than he lets on. It’s affected everybody more than anybody dwells on because we were all just trying to be strong for him anddget on with our lives but it’s going to have a massive impact on him.”

Operation Sceptre runs all week.