2024 Winner
Kaylynn Donald and Abbie Jarvis
Schoolgirl victims of sickening attacks by other children bravely waived their anonymity to back a campaign to support victims of youth violence
Kaylynn, 13, was brutally attacked on a school bus by a group of bullies as she travelled home from class at Bell Baxter High School in Ladybank, Fife, in October. Despite telling her parents the ordeal had left her feeling suicidal, Kaylynn’s parents were warned by the GP she faced a wait of between six and 12 months before receiving specialist support. She finally got an appointment 19 months later.
She is one of more than 5,300 Scottish children and young people on waiting lists for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, with 147 waiting over a year. Mum Vicky said: “I have done everything that I can do as a parent. I have gone to the GP, waited on the CAMHS assessment and I’m taking all the advice that I can. We don’t have anywhere else to turn.”
Abbie Jarvis, now 14, was lured to a park in Glasgow in October 2022 and beaten unconscious as other kids filmed the attack on their phones. After she was brought home by another parent, her mum Angela said: “She was covered in blood, falling in and out of consciousness. She couldn’t even speak. It was horrific to see and it nearly broke me. Even now, I can’t bring myself to think of her lying there during that beating and waiting for it to stop.”
Both girls were pictured as part of the Daily Record’s Our Kids…Our Future campaign, set up to help tackle youth violence and call for more support for victims.