My son was stabbed 64 times in UK’s hidden knife crime hotspot where thugs carry ‘Rambo’ blades as fashion accessories’

will make people realise the “devastation left behind when someone is prepared to use a knife”.

She adds: "I've discovered there's a code among the real lowlife that says if you stab someone in the lower leg you won't get done for murder.

"How sickening is that? And it's exactly what happened in Toni's case.

"I feel as though I'm functioning, just existing day to day for the sake of my other four children, but that's hard when you are stuck with this feeling that justice hasn't been done.”

Pit of despair

Chris Cave, aged 17, was "in the wrong place at the wrong time", his mum Theresa says.

Chris, a 'good kid' who had started his first job with Virgin, was at a flats complex on Redcar's Lakes estate when he was set upon by a gang fuelled by drink and drugs.

Sean Matson, then 20, eventually confessed to Chris's murder halfway through his trial at Teesside Crown Court.

In the aftermath of Chris's murder, Theresa, 58, was trapped in a pit of despair, spending her days sitting on the steps where she found his lifeless body.

She would pour out her thoughts by scribbling them into notebooks, trying to make sense of the pointless, motiveless murder.

That was in 2003 and Theresa has now become one of Britain's strongest voices in the battle to combat knife crime.

She established the Chris Cave Foundation to support and educate families and communities affected by violent crime.

And she has watched in horror as the statistics show her home district has become one of the most dangerous in the UK.

"It's devastating to see those figures for this part of the world,” she says. “When Chris was murdered it was a rarity to have someone stabbed to death in such a terrible, needless crime.

"But now knives are commonplace, kids carry them casually and we're seeing so many young adults in this region murdered or seriously injured."

Theresa has her own theories on why the Cleveland area - plagued by low incomes and unemployment - is suffering so badly.

"There's an element of bravado,” she says. “We're a small community and some of the kids, probably influenced by social media, want to be like the gangs in the bigger cities so they want to carry knives.

"But what is here for the young people? They have nowhere to go because the local authority slashed youth services and put them on the street corners.

"You have youth centres asking £25 per child for a trip to Flamingoland. If you survive on Universal Credit as so many do, you can't begin to afford that.

"So what do they do? They gather on street corners and read grown adults on social media calling them scum because of that.

"They are full of anger and torment and resentment. There's no such thing as a bad kid but the lack of opportunities in this part of the world is having a devastating effect on these young people.

"That's why we are out there talking to them and educating them and going into schools to tell them about the devastation of being left behind when the boy you loved so much is suddenly taken away.

"Every morning I wake up in yesterday, to the time before Chris was murdered. That never changes, but I've been trying to channel my energy into making a difference."

Theresa has worked tirelessly since 2005 to spread the anti knife crime message, firstly in schools in South Yorkshire and later back on Teesside.

Her latest initiative is to circulate "stab packs" with the help of funding from Cleveland's Police and Crime Commissioner.

Students at Stockton's Riverside College have volunteered to fill over 1,000 of the packs with lifesaving equipment to staunch blood loss and deliver mouth to mouth.

In doing so they have learnt a valuable lesson in life saving - and also the lethal capacity of a knife blade.

"You can see that it made them think and so many of those young people asked if they could take a pack home,” says Theresa. “That's where we want them, in the pockets and handbags of young people where they can save lives.

"Of course it's terrible that we have to do this, that knives are carried around as fashion accessories, but we have to be realistic and save as many young people as we can reach.”

Theresa has been joined in her campaign for a specialist Violence Reduction Unit in Cleveland by Barney Green, a surgeon at James Cook Hospital.

He played a major role in the Government's decision to now grant more funding to Cleveland Police's Crime Reduction Unit.

He said: "The strain in resources is key. If an individual is brought in by ambulance with police escorting, goes through A&E and needs theatre treatment, you are talking about a £20,000 cost for that episode if you take aftercare into account. 

"It's also very clear that sewing someone up does not get rid of the problem, but getting in at the grass roots level just might.

"We need to educate kids about the devastation and damage a knife injury does to a body and those around the victim."

Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Steve Turner says he had “long been aware” of the problems of knife crime in Cleveland, and that his team lobbied hard to receive the funding for the new violence reduction unit.

He adds: “We are already targeting some of the area’s most violent wards with more action to come as we refine and target the hotspots where we can have the biggest impact.

“The long-term key to stopping this culture of violence is to get upstream of any violent, criminal or anti-social behaviour and try to channel young people’s energies into more positive activities.

“It’s too simplistic to think we can arrest our way out of this problem, we must take a long-term, strategic view, whilst still making an impact in the here and now.

“We have already invested in organisations like the Chris Cave Foundation to make young people aware of the consequences of carrying a knife  and we are funding training to give young people the confidence to be active bystanders.

“That means they can tackle their peers when they see them carrying a blade and tell them to put down their weapon.”