Mansfield parents pay tribute to Southport victims at Merseyside vigil

Yvette Price-Mear, holder of the Order of the League of Mercy (OLM) award, is the founder of Pet Bereavement Support, and known to generations in the Mansfield area as 'Mrs Hook-a-Duck’.

Yvette, alongside her husband Tony, visited Southport for a vigil on Tuesday, July 30, to pay her respects to the victims and families affected by the attack.

Three children were killed in the stabbings at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Monday, July 29.

The attack sent shockwaves across the community and around the world, as reports started to emerge on Monday afternoon of the stabbing.

There were floods of footage and photos on social media of a chaotic scene at a property on Hart Street, Southport.

It soon emerged that a suspect had launched an attack, stabbing 13 people at the event, including 11 children.

Police said a male suspect had been detained, later confirmed to be a 17-year-old boy.

Yvette said: “We love Southport, we always holidayed here when our children Rebecca and David were small and our daughter Rebecca fulfilled her childhood dream by training to be a Bluecoat at Pontins when she was 17.

“What happened on Monday really resonated with Tony and I because our daughter is now a dance teacher in Mansfield Woodhouse.

“The vigil was impeccably observed and extremely moving; we held hands with strangers, hugged strangers and applauded the emergency service representatives.

“We had little friends of those murdered near us and also pupils of the dance studio.

“It broke my heart when a lady told me that the vicar conducting the vigil had christened two of the little girls who were murdered.”

Yvette said “everything kicked off” when they returned to their hotel, the Prince of Wales on Lord Street, as rioting broke out nearby.

She said that emergency vehicles with sirens blaring were rushing around all evening, and added how it was “awful” to think that the brave members of the police, ambulance staff, and firefighters were being attacked, especially considering that just 24 hours earlier they had witnessed such chaos.

Both Yvette and Tony signed the book of condolences.