The singing nurse who fights gang violence
A nurse who has helped save the lives of countless teenage stabbing victims is starting a campaign to try to end gang violence.
Elida Zulu's job treating children at Whipps Cross hospital has put her on the front line in the fight against knife crime.
Now the 26-year-old parttime singer is to launch Drop Your Knife And Pick Up A Guitar at Sound London in Leicester Square tomorrow. All profits from the night will go to community youth projects to inspire young people to express themselves through music, not violence.
Ms Zulu, who is lead singer with a band called Dirty Fuzz and has written songs for Nick Cave and Snow Patrol, hopes the monthly event will inspire teenagers to join a music group instead of a gang. In the past year, the nurse has dealt with three stabbing cases and said she was "horrified" at the rise in knife violence. "It's horrible when you get children who've been stabbed," she said.
"The one patient who really stands out was a 15-year-old boy who came in about two months ago with a stab wound to his heart. He was in bed with drains sticking out of him and there was blood everywhere. The knife went through his chest and touched some of his heart. He stayed in a long time but was lucky - sometimes they would die in A&E.
"The patients come in on a blue light and I have to rush to resuscitate them. They come in still bleeding from their wounds so there'll be blood all over you and you're putting your hands in all this blood. You have to take their clothes off to isolate where it's coming from. You can see the look in the parents' eyes - they're telling you to be as quick as possible so you can save their child's life.
"We have managed to save all of them - I've not dealt with a child who has died from knife crime."
Educated at a private college in Shropshire, Ms Zulu found London a culture shock when she came here to work seven years ago, adding that "kids on the street gave me a hard time". She said: "Knife crime victims are seen as just another statistic but as a nurse you are entirely focused on saving that person.
"You're obviously told not to judge but these incidents could be avoided. The family unit is quite dysfunctional and a lot [of children] are suffering from an identity crisis."
