Residents invited to life-saving event to help prevent another tragic death

Local residents are being invited to a life-saving event held in memory of a teenage boy who was stabbed to death in New Moston last year.

Sarah Stryczek, who runs Sparkles Cakes on Broadway, Oldham, is launching a groundbreaking ‘Stop the bleed’ campaign to give people vital skills to help save a life in the event of a major incident. 

This comes after 14-year-old, Ibrahima Seck, (pictured below) was stabbed on Nuthurst Road, close to Sarah’s premises, on June 8, 2025. The tragic event left the local community in shock. 

Sarah explained: “Ibrahima was out with friends when he was murdered by a group of youths who chose to carry a knife and use it in the worse possible way.  

“After he was stabbed, he ran to a nearby house where he banged on the door pleading for help as his attackers followed.  

“Unfortunately, by the time the air ambulance arrived Ibrahima's injuries were too severe and he lost his life."

His attackers, two of whom are aged 14 and another aged 17, who was 16 at the time, were found guilty of murder and manslaughter, while Keri Dobson, aged 37, of Warbeck Road, Moston and Naomi Heavens, 39, of Kenyon Lane, Moston have been convicted of assisting an offender. 

The five will be sentenced on February 27, 2026 in Manchester Crown Court.

Sarah said: “As someone who lives and works in the area which straddles Oldham and Manchester, we found ourselves in the heart of a community in shock and the same point kept coming up, ‘If he had banged on our door we wouldn’t have known what to do’.  

“This motivated me to do something about that, so I spoke with Ibrahima's school to see if they would reach out to his family as I wanted to offer ‘Stop the Bleed’ training in his memory. I hoped this would bring something positive for them from his tragic loss and his father’s response was simple, ‘that would be wonderful’.  

Sarah later contacted Chris Pace and Angela Hallas at Health and Safety Strategies who offered to create a class on how to use Stop the Bleed kits and perform basic CPR.  

She then reached out to her local South Chadderton Councillor, Holly Harris, for support, who then arranged the police involvement. Greater Manchester Police will be setting up a knife amnesty metal detecting arch at the event this Saturday, January 24.     

There will be two classes on the day, the first at 9am and the second at 1pm. Both sessions will last three hours. Book your tickets for the classes by scanning the QR code below.

Tickets are £15 each thanks to the help of a grant from local councillors who wanted to make the classes as affordable as possible and there are now 40 with a wait list available.  

The sessions will be held at Skill Space Oldham and Sparkles Cakes 586-588 Broadway, Chadderton, Oldham.  

A refreshment stand on the day will be available with coffee and cake set up on the lawn with Greater Manchester Police and Holly outside with the classes being held inside. 

The classes are the only ticketed part of the day, but everyone is encouraged to visit and grab a brew, speak to exhibitors, and take this opportunity to start hard conversations about the implications of carrying a knife.  

Sarah added: “We might not be able to stop people choosing to carry a knife, or taking a life, but what we can do, is come together as a community to learn the skills it might take to save one. 

“Ibrahima's family and school will be attending as they have started a campaign called Ibrahima's Law which aims to enforce mandatory information sharing between all agencies involved in safeguarding the welfare of children in the UK and to foster transparency and accountability among professionals, ensuring all parties involved are equipped with the knowledge they need to protect children effectively.  

“They need 100,000 signatures to get this in front of parliament, so we hope this event will help shine a light on this campaign too.” 

Anyone willing to sign the petition can do so here: https://chng.it/FqhcKpsPfS