'My son was stabbed to death – I couldn't let him die in vain'

When Zoe Cooke's son was killed in July 2021, she decided to do something that would make him proud

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It was the call that every parent dreads. On a hot summer's day in 2021, Zoe Cooke's life changed forever. She was prepping Sunday dinner and awaiting the arrival of her 22-year-old son, Byron Griffin, who lived just around the corner, when she received the news that he'd been stabbed.

"Byron was really outgoing," Zoe, 51, says. "He was always making people laugh and he played the joker. But with me he was very much a mummy's boy. He would tell me anything. His friends used to always laugh and say, 'I can't believe you've told your mum that. Why would you tell your mum that?' He'd reply, 'She's my best friend. I tell her everything.' We had a really, really close bond."

"One of his sisters was six years older than him, but he was very protective of her. If she got a boyfriend, he was like, 'Who's that?' And his little sister, well, he absolutely adored her. He'd come to my house and my daughter and her friends would all dive on him and he'd play with them. He loved them both to pieces."

The darkest day

Byron was stabbed in Eyre's Garden in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. "I can remember it as if it was yesterday," says Zoe. "When I think of knife crime, I think of it as being a dark, dingy day, but it was nothing like that. It was the day after England had been playing in the football and it was red-hot. I was sitting in my living room and I'd just put the dinner on because it was a Sunday.