Harvey Willgoose’s mother says she wants her son to be remembered as the “fun-loving cheeky-chappy” he was as she vows to get knife arches installed in schools.
Caroline Willgoose and her husband Mark have become prominent campaigners against knife violence since Harvey was stabbed to death at All Saints Catholic High School, in Sheffield, in February.
Mrs Willgoose said: “I want him to be known as the kid he was.
“I hate that saying ‘Harvey Willgoose, the pupil that was stabbed to death at school’. He’d hate that.
“I want him to be remembered as the fun-loving kid, cheeky-chappy, sociable kid that he was.”
She said: “He was just a joy. He was a million miles an hour, he was a happy chappy, loved life, loads of friends.
“He’s just left a big empty hole.”
Mrs Willgoose said she only realised after his death how well-known Harvey was, even outside his home city – largely through his devotion to Sheffield United Football Club.
She said she had a message from one fan who explained how Harvey had reached out and helped him with his anxiety after meeting up on an away match trip.
And she said football fans came from all over the country to his funeral.
“People knew him all over, and I didn’t know this,” Mrs Willgoose said.
He used to say ‘I’m famous me, you know, mom’, But he was.”
She said: “I get people coming up to me on a daily basis, if I go to town, or Peaks (Crystal Peaks shopping centre) – coming up crying, mothers crying.”
Mrs Willgoose said: “They’re what’s carrying me through.”
She said: “Our lives are ruined because I know that I’m never, ever going to be happy again.
“His sister, his brother, we’re never going to be happy again. And, that’s a fact.”
Mrs Willgoose has continued to be active on social media, posting her memories of Harvey and pushing her anti-knife violence messages.
She said: “I think, because I’ve got that much video of him and things, it makes him real, you know. Because it is real.”
She said: “I’m just posting things all the time, just keeping him alive.”
Mrs Willgoose said she did not realise the extent of knife problems in schools before the tragedy hit her family.
She said: “It’s all brand new to me. It always happens to someone else.
“You think of it being like gang culture, and Harvey was nothing to do with anything like that.
“He just loved football, he loved life, he loved socialising.”
She said: “It’s a massive problem.”
Mrs Willgoose said she and her family are now devoting themselves to their campaign for knife arches, which work like metal detectors, in school.
The family began speaking out against knife violence soon after Harvey died in February and met with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in March discuss their concerns.
They have an online petition which currently has more than 50,000 signatories.
Mrs Willgoose said: “This can’t happen again.
“We know after all this that there are knives in schools.
“Harvey knew that, the children knew that, and they’re frightened.”
She said: “The one place that children should be safe is in school.
“Once we get knife arches in, then we’ll go into schools and educate children about the devastation of knives.
“There are no winners here.”
Mrs Willgoose said she is also backing Crimestoppers’ Fearless initiative, which encourages young people to anonymously report concerns like knives.
She explained how she attended Sheffield Crown Court for the murder trial but could not go into the courtroom for some of the proceedings – especially when the CCTV footage of the stabbing was being played and for some days when the young defendant took to the witness box.
She said the trial was “mental torture” and she could not listen to defence attempts to disparage her son, especially after teachers had given vivid accounts in court of his bubbly personality.
“That’s not a naughty kid,” she said.
“That’s the kind of kid he was. He related to everybody.”
Asked if she thought that the defendant understood the magnitude of what he has done, Mrs Willgoose said: “I don’t know. When I’m in there, he does look at me all the time.
“And I hope that he does. But, I don’t know.”
