'My life's a living hell': Ava White's sister tells LBC why Christmas won't ever be the same a year on from her death

25 November 2022, 05:33 | Updated: 25 November 2022, 08:40

The sister of murdered 12-year-old, Ava White, has told LBC her family has been destroyed and Christmas will never be the same again.

Today marks one year since Ava was fatally stabbed in Liverpool City Centre while out in town for the annual Christmas Light switch-on.

She was knifed in the neck during a dispute about a Snapchat video. Her killer, who was 14 at the time, is serving life with a minimum of 13 years for murder.

In an emotional interview, Mia White, 19, told us: "Ava was fun, caring, she was too good for this earth.

"I kept thinking to myself, they've got this wrong. When I got to the hospital I still thought they had Ava mixed up with someone else. I remember feeling in the pit of my stomach sick, absolutely sick that somebody in the city could do that to someone else.

"My life is living hell on earth. That's what I'm living now. My life revolves around Ava. I loved doing everything with Ava. It's hard. Hard seeing my cousins because I know how close they was to Ava too, and you can tell something's missing.

Mia White: Christmas will never be the same after Ava's death

"We haven't actually been as a whole family since this happened to Ava. We can't, it's too painful. A lot of my cousins are Ava's age, so it's hard seeing them. It's like they don't really know what to do or act. You want to take their pain away too.

"There is no Christmas no more. Not for me and my mum. For the kids it still carries on as normal, but they just don't come down to our house. We won't every celebrate it again. I can't, it's too hard for me.

"Do you know when I see a Christmas tree, I just want to rip it down. Ava was all my excitement for Christmas. I was getting older, but seeing Ava's face on Christmas morning, that made me happy. But we can't have that no more."

Read more: Ava White's family 'ripped apart' by her murder as boy given life sentence, mother says

Read more: Boy, 14, sobs as he is found guilty of murdering Ava White in row over Snapchat video

Since Ava's death, Mia and her mum, Leann, have set up the Ava White Foundation to help victims of knife crime and to educate young people about the dangers of carrying a knife.

Mia said: "I thought about it probably a few weeks after it had happened. Every day someone else has been knifed. Something needs to be done.. How many kids is it going to take before someone says 'stop'? This is wrong, these kids should be growing up living their lives.

"I'm looking at going into schools, I've been into one school already. When I tell them my story they cry, because they can't believe it can be true. I've been that kid sat in assembly looking up thinking I hope this never happens to me. And it did.

"It needs to be educated to everybody, to the extent that it is now. They're getting used every day. If I could stop one child from wanting to pick a knife up and put it in their pocket then I've done what I needed to do."

Ava White Foundation on TikTok.

Ava White Foundation on Facebook.