A MURDERED boy’s mother is hoping 80 seconds of air time could save teenagers from becoming knife crime victims.

The Home Office has recruited Theresa Cave, whose son, Chris, 17, was stabbed to death, to make a plea on radio for youngsters to put down their weapons.

The 43-year-old, from Redcar, east Cleveland, has been asked to put together a script for a radio advertisement to be broadcast across the UK.

A Home Office spokesman said of the £3m campaign: “We have asked various people, including Theresa, to write an anti-crime script for a radio advert.

“The script will be submitted to us and go through all kinds of processes. We understand it will go out at the end of September.”

Mrs Cave said: “The campaign is called, ‘It does not have to happen’. They have a girl whose boyfriend was killed and an offender.

“I am hoping listening to a mother will make a difference.

A mother is a child’s best friend, especially with lads. To listen to a mother, to listen to me, to see how much pain it does give you, I am hoping will get the message to hit home.”

The Home Office has a copy of a book by Mrs Cave, called Life Must Mean Life. The title reflects her four-year campaign for killers to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

She said: “They have got my book, they are going to take some quotes from it for a script for the radio.

“I will be speaking on the radio. It will be played constantly – with anti-knife warnings.

The adverts will be about 80 to 90 seconds long.”

Chris was stabbed four times, including once through the heart, in June 2003. His killer, Sean Matson, 20, is serving 12-and-a-half years for his murder.

Mrs Cave, who has been talking to schoolchildren, is organising a peace march with local youngsters through Redcar next month.

She said: “I have been in touch with a lot of youths and they want this knife crime to stop. They want to get knives off the streets.”

Meanwhile, Mrs Cave found herself the victim of a crime last weekend when her bank account was emptied in Northamptonshire, while she was at home in Redcar.

She withdrew £50 from the Alliance and Leicester cashpoint at the Somerfield supermarket, Redcar, on August 3, leaving £260 in her Abbey account.

On checking the following day, she found she had just £1.95 left.

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police said yesterday: “The bank’s fraud team is investigating.”