06 Feb Essex woman raises £400,000 for knife crime prevention across London and Essex
Julie Taylor, from Chelmsford, Essex, was among 26 exceptional individuals honoured with the esteemed British Citizen Award (BCA) at the Palace of Westminster. This recognition celebrates their outstanding contributions to society.
The Medal Presentation, held on Thursday 23rd January, saw Julie receive the coveted BCA Medal of Honour for Service to Community (BCAc). Recipients are entitled to use the post-nominals to commemorate their achievements.
Julie lost her grandson Liam to knife crime after he was stabbed in Writtle, Essex in 2020. Despite her grief, Julie formed The Liam Taylor Legacy, to raise awareness of knife crime and raise money to fund and supply bleed control kits to hundreds of venues across Essex, London and further afield to help with catastrophic bleeds.
Knife crime is one of the country’s most serious problems and Julie and The Liam Taylor Legacy raise awareness of issues putting knife crime on the agenda of policymakers, having recently taken this to Parliament. In addition to the bleed kit programmes being rolled out, Julie also educates with tools, resources and training to ensure knife crime prevention can reach every young person.
Each bleed kit costs £102 and Julie uses social media to get the message to as many people as possible that these life-saving kits could prevent a stabbing not become fatal. Julie has raised over £40,000 for more than 400 life-saving kits, alongside two defibrillators and several 24-hour accessible cabinets and metal detecting wands for door staff to a range of venues, with the kits so far saving the lives of three people. Julie visits schools, colleges, young offenders’ institutions and prisons to talk about the devastation and impact that is caused by knife and violent crime.
Julie was presented with the BCA Medal of Honour by Steve Ashton, Chief Partnership Officer, Places for People who said: “All nominations were totally inspiring and humbling. It was an absolute privilege and honour to represent Places for People as founding sponsors.”
The presentation was hosted by TV presenter Matt Allwright, and attended by BCA Patrons Dame Mary Perkins, Founder of Specsavers, supporters from Sponsors One Stop, Specsavers, Places for People, Wates and Novus Solutions as well as Peer Host The Rt Hon Lord Dholakia. Following the ceremony, medalists enjoyed an Open Top Lap of Honour tour provided by Big Bus London.
