YOUNG people in Runcorn and Widnes will get a chance to visit the emotive Knife Angel statue as part of an awareness campaign.

Live Your Life Drop The Knife has received funding from Police and crime commissioner David Keane’s Safer Communities Fund to run the workshops based on the visit of the Knife Angel – a structure made of confiscated knives which is currently visiting Cheshire.

The funding will allow young people from Runcorn and Widnes, two areas in Cheshire which have the highest incidents of knife crime, to visit the Knife Angel statue outside Chester Cathedral where it is currently situated.

Mr Keane said: "The Knife Angel is a symbol of both loss and hope.

"It acts as a reminder of all the families who have tragically lost loved ones as a result of knife crime.

"I'm proud to have helped bring the Knife Angel to Cheshire and to fund these workshops.

"It's important that we give young people in some of our areas most affected by knife crime the opportunity to see the Knife Angel and be part of the message it sends to our communities.

"Although the Knife Angel will move onto another city in December, these workshops will leave a lasting message to young people in Halton that carrying a knife doesn't make you safer and it can quickly escalate a minor issue into something more serious and potentially life-changing."

Live Your Life Drop The Knife also plan to use the funding to make a short film about the Knife Angel’s visit to Cheshire to educate even more young people.

Louis Bamber, founding director of Live Your Life Drop The Knife, added: "We are delighted to be awarded funding from the police and crime commissioner's Safer Communities Fund to allow us to successfully engage with the wider public during the Knife Angel's visit to Chester.”

Live Your Life Drop the Knife is one of hundreds of organisations across Cheshire which has received Safer Communities Funding over the last few years to support crime prevention or meet the objectives within the commissioner’s police and crime plan.

To find out more about the Safer Communities Fund, visit https://www.cheshire-pcc.gov.uk/what-im-doing/safer-communities-fund/