Ava White's sister was in tears as she told of the harrowing moment she discovered her sibling had been killed.
Ava was murdered in Liverpool city centre after a Christmas light switch-on on November 25 last year. The 12-year-old was stabbed in the neck by 'Boy A', who was then aged 14 and cannot be named for legal reasons, after an argument about him filming her on Snapchat.
Ava's older sister Mia White, 19, has now spoken for the first time since her murder as she paid tribute to her "funny" and "loving" sister in an interview with BBC Breakfast.
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Mia told the BBC: "Ava was funny, she was loving, she was caring, she was kind. She was just how every child is at 12.
"Ava was just like a little light that never ever dimmed down."
Mia described her close bond with Ava, who was her "shadow." She said: "Me and Ava were really close. We told each other everything.
"Every night we'd be in each other's rooms until we went to bed. We'd just sit on the phone to our mates and sit there and laugh, take pictures, listen to music, just normal teenage sisters are.
"She was like my shadow, I used to bring her everywhere with me."
Almost one year from Ava's murder, Mia recalled the phone call she had with her nan moments before she discovered her sister had been killed.
She said: "I remember everything of that night. I can just remember getting in the taxi screaming, going 'just get me there, get me there.'
Mia said she had made plans to go shopping with Ava the following day so she could choose her Christmas presents.
She said: "I can remember ringing my nan and I asked my nan - I said 'do you think she'll be alright?' and she said yeah, and then that's when I got told the news Ava had passed away."
The Ava White Foundation was set up by Ava's family following her murder. Mia is now determined to raise awareness of the dangers of knife crime and the devastating impact it has had on her family.
She said: "This shouldn't be normal. People shouldn't be losing their family members everyday to a knife.
"No one should have to be going through this. If we could stop another one, or another child, or someone wanting to put a knife in their pocket and going to use it on someone else then my message is out there and it's done."
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