Susanna Reid has recalled the terrifying moment she was mugged by a man with a knife who left a "slash across my body".
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The GMB presenter is backing Crystal Palace football club's Divert scheme, which is aiming to reduce knife crime in South London, and detailed her own near-death experience as part of her involvement at an event at Selhurst Park. Susanna is a lifelong Crystal Palace fan and a patron of the Palace For Life Foundation - the club’s official charity.
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She said: "I feel particularly affected and touched and moved to support the work that is being done to tackle knife crime. And my heart breaks for anybody who has been affected.
"I've got three teenage boys. And we know it's hard to find a group of teenagers in South London who are not affected in some way by knife crime."
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Reliving her own scary ordeal, Susanna explained: "Twenty-five years ago, I was walking through South London. I had just taken a load of cash out of a cash machine to go out for a night out. And a young lad came up to me and got my bag off me.
"And as he ran away, I ran after him. And in fact, he dropped my bag, he took the money."
Susanna is a lifelong Crystal Palace supporter
Susanna went on: "But I looked down at the bag, and at my coat. And there was a knife slash across my body, through my clothes and through my bag.
"But it had not touched my skin. I was lucky."
Expressing her support for the club's initiative, Susanna added: "I wish that 25 years ago somebody had intervened with that young lad. And so I support everything you're doing in order to help those kids before they think that that's okay."
The charity’s Divert scheme aims to keep 300 young people away from crime, gangs, and anti-social behaviour through one-to-one mentoring over the next three years. This involves sending charity workers in Palace tops to local police stations to help offenders.
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