A proud daughter has vowed to carry on the legacy of her dad who transformed his life and led a national campaign to inform young people of the dangers of knife crime, before his sudden death.
Paris Hurn was heartbroken when she found out about the sudden death of her dad, Jahmaine Davis, who dedicated the last three years of his life promoting his Stop The Bloodshed UK campaign.
Jahmaine, who lived in the Loughborough and Leicester areas, toured the country, rapping in public, delivering talks in school and speaking on the radio to deter young people from knife violence, Leicestershire Live reports.
Paris, 19, from Shepshed, Leicestershire, said: “I have seen him go from being homeless and taking drugs to completely change who he is, and try to help people.
“He went from being such a negative person to such a positive person. I was so proud to see it.
“He did so much so quickly.”
Paris didn’t see much of her dad growing up as he was sometimes in prison, but he would always keep in touch and send her letters while he was inside.
After the death of his friend, Mark Swinhoe, who was stabbed to death in Loughborough in 2018, Jahmaine decided to launch his campaign and tackle the root causes that lead to knife violence.
His work included collaborating with Revolving Doors, a group which works to help criminals stop reoffending, calling for the language used within the justice system to be modernised and to become less clinical.
He also strengthened his relationship with Paris, spending more time with her in Leicester while keeping her updated with the campaign.
She said: “He had so much enthusiasm, he was so over the top. If he’d done something good, he would jump up and down.
“You got so much positive energy from being around him.”
Jahmaine died at the age of 42 and is understood to have taken his own life, Paris said.
Now she is looking to continue his campaign and raise awareness of men’s mental health.
She said: “Men have pride. Men have to put on a persona as being resilient.
“They carry so much weight. They don’t want to show any signs of weakness.
“Men’s mental health needs to be normalised as much as women’s. It’s very hard to let that guard down and say, I’m not OK.”
She will be making t-shirts and mugs, similar to what her dad used to do for the campaign.
She is also hoping to continue going into schools to warn young people about how knife crime can ruin people’s lives.
You can view some of Jahmaine’s rap songs on the Just Jahmaine Youtube channel.
Paris is also raising funds to cover the funeral costs for her dad - you can click here to make a donation on his gofundme page.
