Anti-bleed Bag Campaign

THE MP for Southend West is supporting a campaign for bleed-control bags by helping community hero Julie Taylor distribute items through Old Leigh.

Ms Taylor, a campaigning grandmother of a teenager stabbed and murdered outside a pub in Essex in 2020, has worked tirelessly to ensure that all corners of the county and UK have access to a bleed control bag.

Anna Firth welcomed her to Leigh and the pair distributed bags to popular venues in Old Leigh, including The Crooked Billet, Sarah Moore, Thames Breeze and The Boat Yard.

The bleed bags – which cost around £100 each – are an essential tool in ensuring lives are not lost.

In late May, a kit was used outside a nightclub in Southend where two men were stabbed.

Ms Taylor said it showed that knife crime campaigning is more important than ever.

To cover the cost of the bleed bag kits, Ms Taylor established the Liam Taylor Legacy crowdfunding page, together with other fundraising initiatives.

The Taylor family have so far paid for two defibrillators, 101 bleed control bags and seven bleed control units. These are housed in boxes and cost almost £600 each.

“The initiative is not exclusive to Essex and the bags have been distributed as far afield as Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

Ms Firth said: “No one should have to go through what Julie and her family have experienced, but Julie has been an incredible beacon for good in her work on supplying bleed bag kits around Essex and the UK.

“Julie is an example of selfless community action. Her tireless campaigning and fundraising has supplied 101 bleed control bags containing a tourniquet, special ChitoGauze dressings and a foil blanket.

“I want to see these bags in every licenced premises and every police car across the country.”

Ms Taylor added: “I want them absolutely everywhere.

“The bags and units shouldn’t be in places more than three minutes apart – because that’s how long it can take to bleed to death.

“People’s generosity in helping to fund these kits is incredible. I hope the kits could save another family going through what we have – and still are going through.

“We don’t ever want these bleed kits to be needed, but if they save a life it’ll mean the world to me.”

Picture: Local anti-knife crime campaigner, Julie Taylor with Anna Firth MP, outside The Boatyard in Old Leigh

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