Football club calls for bleed kit training to be compulsory in Bristol secondary schools

A community football club has launched a campaign to make bleed kit training compulsory in secondary schools after one of its young players was stabbed to death.  

Carly Kingdon from The Park Knowle FC in Knowle West has set up a petition on the Government’s Parliament website, amassing more than 500 signatures in less than a week.

Kingdon told our sister title BristolWorld there are a few different reasons why she thinks it should be mandatory for young people to learn how to use the kits, which treat stabbing wounds and can save lives.   

She said: “One, it’s good knowledge to have. Two, it might make kids think twice about carrying a knife if they knew what could happen if they used it. And three, it could open a future for kids to go into the health sector.” 

Kingdon helps to run the football club chaired by her father Mike Alden, who was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero in 2022.    

The club was also where 16-year-old Max Dixon - who was stabbed to death alongside 15-year-old Mason Rist in Knowle West last month - played, with a memorial match recently raising more than £3,000 for the boys’ families.        

The life-saving bleed kits - of which the club has two - were launched in Bristol by anti-knife crime campaigner Leanne Reynolds.  BristolWorld recently took part in one of the training sessions led by Reynolds, who is campaigning to bring the Knife Angel to Bristol.