Mum of murdered Connor Brown quits job to tackle knife crime

Tanya Brown’s son Connor was brutally stabbed in Sunderland in 2019, aged just 18, when he stepped in to defend others.

Following the conviction of the two men responsible for his killing, Tanya has become a prominent figure in the fight against knife crime, setting up the Connor Brown Trust in his memory, raising awareness of the devastation knives can cause.

Read more: Let's stop this madness: Northern Echo's plan for a North East Knife Crime Taskforce

Now Tanya has quit her teaching job of more than 16 years to go full time working to end the scourge of knife crime on our streets.

Tanya told the The Northern Echo: “I am doing what I need to do.

“My heart will always be with my job and school I have worked in, but my life direction changed when Connor died. It’s not the path I wanted but it is one that has been chosen for me and it is the path I have to make a difference on.

Connor Brown (Image: Contributor)

“This is the direction that my life has taken and I need to make it a positive one.

“There’s nothing that I am going to let get in my way.

“It has been a massive decision, it’s one that I haven’t made lightly. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and I’m giving up a really good job. It’s hard but at the same time I need to – everybody seems to have this faith in what I’m doing and I need to put this faith myself.

“We have so much good momentum and we are reaching out to so many people. I just know we can do more.”

She will leave her job at New Silksworth Academy at the end of the academic year.

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Tanya hopes that by giving up her day job she can spend more time working in schools educating students on the dangers of knives, delivering one-to-one mentoring, assemblies or class sessions, as well as continuing her current work.

She has been backing the Northern Echo’s campaign to end knife crime and is backing our North East Knife Crime Taskforce, which aims to help organisations across the region come together to save lives.

The Northern Echo recently facilitated a meeting between the mums of teens murdered by knives and Sir Keir Starmer. (L-R) Zoey McGill, Sir Keir Starmer, Tanya Brown, Yvette Cooper (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

In April she met, alongside Zoey McGill whose son Jack Woodley’s life was also taken by a knife, with Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer who said the pair’s moving testimony would help form a Labour government’s policy of knife crime.