An emergency bleed control cabinet will soon be on hand to save lives in Maldon thanks to the efforts of the family of Liam Taylor, who was stabbed to death outside an Essex pub in January 2020.

Liam - known as Fish to his loved ones - was just 19 years old when he was murdered outside the Rose and Crown, in Writtle, and his family has since set up the Liam Taylor Legacy Fund to help victims of knife crime in his name.

Liam's grandmother Julie Taylor, who runs the café at St Peter's Hospital, has already bought several bleed kits for Maldon through the fund - and has now added a bleed control cabinet to the resources the town has on hand to save the lives of people in need of urgent care.

A bleed control cabinet houses a defibrillator and emergency bleed kit - which provides immediate intervention to stop people from bleeding to death before paramedics arrive on the scene of an incident - to offer a single source for publicly-available, lifesaving medical equipment.

She said: "As a family, we are constantly fundraising to buy the bleed kits which save lives of stab victims as well as people with major bleeds from incidents like car accidents.

"We hope to place the bags in each pub in Chelmsford, Maldon and Braintree."

She added: "I need a pub in Maldon to host the box for the town - it won't cost them a penny and I can get it put on the wall."

Julie has bought a second cabinet to go into a venue in Chelmsford.

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She is also setting up a new initiative to raise funds for another bleed kit to go into a Maldon venue.

"Every last Thursday of the month we are starting a knit and natter group," she said.

"The cost of tea and coffee for this is £1 and it will all be saved up until we have enough money to get another bag for Maldon."

The group will meet at 11am in the café at St Peter's Hospital on Spital Road.

There is also a black tie casino night in Burnham on 19 February to raise money for the fund, which you can read about here.