Children taught to pack wounds and use tourniquets as part of the ‘Stop the Bleed’ training

Children as young as eleven will be taught how to stem bleeding as part of an initiative one bereaved mum has described as ‘essential’.

Hundreds of pupils used dummy limbs to learn how to apply pressure, pack wounds and use a tourniquet as part of the ‘Stop the Bleed’ training, which began at schools across Greater Manchester yesterday.

It’s hoped the life-saving scheme - pioneered by Greater Manchester’s violence reduction unit - can be rolled out in secondary schools nationwide next year.

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Bosses say the skills learnt can be applied to scenarios including stabbings, accidental injuries, car accidents and animal attacks with the materials aimed at children in Years 6 and 7.

Kelly Brown - whose son Rhamero West was fatally stabbed in Old Trafford - says she is delighted to hear schoolchildren will now be equipped with skills to save lives. “I feel like it’s needed. I think we should be targeting children in Year 5 and 6 in primary schools,” she says. “That’s before they go into that transitional age. I think that’s the perfect age to learn to be honest. You never know when there is going to be an incident or if these children will come across something really serious.”

Sixteen-year-old Rhamero was chased by three teenagers and stabbed during an attack back in September 2021. Ryan Cashin and Giovanni Lawrence were jailed for life for his murder, while Marquis Richards was sentenced to the youth equivalent of life and locked up for at least 18 years following a crown court trial.

Despite facing unimaginable loss, Kelly has worked tirelessly since Rhamero’s death to raise awareness of knife crime and deter young people from arming themselves. She