Twenty years after his son was stabbed to death while trying to break up a schoolyard fight, Mark Prince says he still swims through the same grieving process. If you asked him whether he was happy, his answer would be a simple no. The former professional boxer, awarded an OBE for his work tackling knife and gang crime, now finds himself supporting other bereaved families on a monthly basis – often sitting in silence or praying with them, because the shared experience of losing a child to violence creates a connection that few others can understand.
Twenty years on, a father’s grief remains raw
Kiyan Prince was 15 years old when he was fatally stabbed outside the London Academy school in Edgware, north London, on 18 May 2006. He stepped in to break up a fight between another pupil and the perpetrator, Hannad Hasan, then aged 16. Kiyan suffered a single stab wound to the heart from a penknife that Hasan later claimed he carried as a “toy”. Hasan was convicted of murder following a retrial and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 13 years, before being extradited to his native Somalia. Evidence emerged during the trial that Hasan had previously threatened a schoolgirl with the same knife.
Kiyan was a footballer in the Queens Park Rangers youth academy, described as a “prodigious talent” with a professional career ahead of him. The club had plans to sign him. His mother, Tracy Cumberbatch, still has strangers approach her in the street to tell her how wonderful her eldest son was.
Mark Prince told Metro that the day continues to weigh heavily on him. “If you told me 20 years ago I would still be swimming through the same grieving process, I would have been shocked,” he said. His daily grief is compounded by the news that another young man has been stabbed to death in London. “As soon as you hear of another murder, your heart just sinks,” he said. “You immediately put yourself in the parents’ shoes.”
Official figures for the year ending March 2025 show 205 murders involving a knife or a sharp instrument in England and Wales. Of those, 52 victims were under the age of 25, and 14 were under 16. Police recorded around 53,000 offences involving a sharp instrument – a 1.2% drop from the previous year and a 3.8% decrease from 2019/20. Knife-related killings as a whole fell by 23%, to 204 cases, while homicides involving a knife or sharp instrument fell by 21% to 172 cases. Yet for Prince, each statistic represents a family now living through what he has endured for two decades.
Supporting families through shared experience
After each stabbing, the victim’s family often reaches out to Prince. He offers support, acknowledging that there is little to say. “Sometimes we just sit in silence or pray,” he explained. “Just me being present, knowing that I have been through the exact same experience, helps people.” He now finds himself supporting families on a monthly basis, as carrying knives has become all too common for teenagers in London. In 2009 – three years after Kiyan’s death – there were 131 violent deaths in the capital, the largest number in a calendar year since then.
Prince, who received the Helen Rollason Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony in 2024, has said his OBE was not for personal recognition but to enable him to “move the vision forward and give other people hope”. He has also expressed a desire to meet his son’s killer to help him start a new life.
The Champions’ Club and a blueprint for change
Prince founded the Kiyan Prince Foundation (KPF) in 2008 to empower young people at risk of youth violence, using boxing, life coaching and educational programmes to steer them away from gangs, county lines and offending. The foundation has reached more than 100,000 young people through its work in schools, communities and young offenders’ institutions. Its programmes include “I Have a Dream”, which combines boxing training with workshops on gang life, knife crime and substance abuse, and a previous campaign called “Finish Your Story”, which advocated for a public health approach to reduce youth violence.
Marking the 20th anniversary of his son’s death, Prince has created a 20-point blueprint aimed at improving the lives of young people. It calls for better pay and recognition for youth workers, more long-term focus on youth services, and greater prominence for community voices. “Teenagers are falling into criminality, county lines gangs, and hurting people because they do not have a focus,” he said.
The foundation is now launching a new campaign, The Champions’ Club, which demands increased investment in youth services – including its own. The charity is fundraising £400,000 in donations to create a new youth space dedicated to Kiyan’s legacy. The campaign builds on earlier initiatives such as “Long Live the Prince”, a collaboration with EA Sports and ENGINE Creative that created a virtual likeness of Kiyan as the professional footballer he would have become. In June 2019, QPR’s Loftus Road stadium was renamed the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium following a fan vote. Kiyan was also added as a playable character in EA Sports’ FIFA 21 on the 15th anniversary of his death – a world first – with Adidas becoming his boot sponsor, JD Sports featuring him on billboards, and Topps International creating a Match Attax card. All of these projects raised funds and awareness for the foundation.
Prince now hopes the Champions’ Club will secure the long-term investment needed to provide a dedicated space where young people can find purpose and steer clear of violence – a legacy his son never got to build.
