When Kelly Brown answered her phone, she soon realised it was a call that no parent ever wants to receive. Her fun loving, beautiful boy Rhamero, 16, had been stabbed, the latest victim of Greater Manchester's knife crime epidemic.
She and her sister jumped into their car, desperate for answers. When they arrived at what was to be the scene of her son's murder, Rhamero had already been put in an ambulance by paramedics.
She was met with a scene of horror, of flashing lights and a police cordon. Kelly shouted to the ambulance, screaming to be let in to see her son. But it drove off, losing in a race against time to try and save her youngest son.
"At that point I knew Rhamero wasn't going to be okay," she movingly recalled. Before she was able to reach the Manchester Royal Infirmary, Kelly received the news that would shatter her and her family's lives forever.
"Kelly can you hear me?", Rhamero's father told her down the line. "He's gone," she was told.
"I couldn't breathe," Kelly recalled. "I was having a panic attack in the car. I ran into the hospital, screaming for my son."
She would not see her son alive again. "We feel like this is a bad nightmare and we will wake up but sadly it is not the case," she said.
The emotional turmoil of losing her beloved son was laid bare as three young men convicted of Rhamero's murder were jailed for life. Though she will never get to see her son again, Rhamero's killers be able to have visits from their family in due course.
"All those involved in taking my son's life will serve their time, and justice will be prevailed," Kelly said. "However during this time we know that they will still be able to have contact with family, and will one day be released back into society.
"Their families will not suffer the way we have. These people will still be able to set and achieve goals, have a family, go on holidays and be around all those that love them. This was robbed from Rhamero."
Kelly told how her eldest son had to bury his brother the day before his birthday. She relies on sleeping and anxiety tablets and has had to give up her job.
She said: "People continue to try to say nice things to us, to help us accept Rhamero has gone, but no one will ever understand if they haven't gone through it themselves. The grief is unbearable, there is not a single day we have managed to get through without breaking down and crying."
Often the grief hits hardest over the little things in life. When she goes shopping, seeing the things that Rhamero liked to eat or drink proves difficult.
The first Christmas without him was similarly tough. Rhamero loved decorating the tree. In his absence, instead of baubles the family put up decorations with his name on.
Kelly's anxiety peaked when she had to sit through a long-running crown court trial. Every day having to relive her son's last moments in graphic detail, hearing shocking information about how her son died.
Seeing horrifying footage of how he was chased down through the streets. The video clips haunt her.
"Hearing and watching the footage during this trial has truly impacted me. My boy, who sounded so scared, who tried to get away not once, but twice, will forever replay in my head every time I close my eyes.
"I am left with a broken heart, no son, anxiety, sleepless nights and panic attacks." All the while, having to watch on as Rhamero's killers laughed and joked during the trial.
She said: "From start to finish during this trial I have seen no remorse from any of the defendants. You have been giggling and smirking in the dock like this is all a joke, a big game to you.
"This is real life, you took my son away. None of you have any respect for my family or even this court room."
One of Rhamero's killers, Marquis Richards, even made a 'cutthroat' gesture to her after he was convicted. "All I can say is thank you for showing me your true colours," Kelly told Richards.
Despite finding justice for her son, the unbearable pain will continue for Kelly and her family for the rest of their lives. As part of the Mero's World initiative, she is working tirelessly to raise awareness of knife crime and deter young people from arming themselves.
She is raising money to help provide first aid training and install bleed safety cabinets across Greater Manchester, to provide instructions and equipment to help stem blood flow in the crucial time before paramedics arrive at the scene. And after her son's killers were jailed, Kelly's message to young people was clear and stark.
"Just don't carry a knife. It's like a ripple effect. You're not only affecting victims, you're affecting families, their friends, even down to the community. Rhamero's death has affected so many lives. It needs to stop, enough is enough.
"Put down the knives."
Ryan Cashin, 19, Giovanni Lawrence, 20 were jailed for life to serve a minimum of 24 and 21 years and respectively. Marquis Richards, 17, was sentenced to the youth equivalent of life and locked up for at least 18 years. All three were convicted of murder.
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