Hello,
16 year old Ahmed Benyermak will never collect the GCSE results that he's spent 2 years working towards. Last night he became yet another London teenager to die needlessly on our streets. Ahmed was not shot or stabbed but rather fell seven storeys. It's thought he tried to escape from a gang by scaling the outside of a building.
The thought of a boy, so desperate that he would choose to climb out of a 13th floor window, has hit us all quite deeply and Phil Bayles' report will undoubtedly make you stop and think, once again about the actions of our youngsters.
Another teenager who never even got the chance to sit his GCSE exams was Jimmy Mizen. The talented young man who no-one had a bad word to say about. He was killed in a bakers near his home - today his amazing family held a party for Jimmy's school friends to celebrate THEIR exam success - Marcus Powell was invited and you can see his report at 6.
From one brave family to another. The Parry's have fought long and hard to provide for their little boy who lost his legs to meningitis as a baby. You may remember his amazing story: despite struggling with the NHS his parents raised enough cash to take him to the States for a new set of prosthetic legs. They got back to London this morning - to find they'd been burgled. Yes - all those cash donations sent to them have gone. Ronke has the details.
Now we can't go without mentioning yet more team GB success ... as I write, a silver in triple jump and a gold in sailing ... and Alastair is very carefully monitoring the showjumping - sorry - INDIVIDUAL show jumping .... I've been corrected. I'm just glad I know which end the tail is at. And that is the beauty of the Olympics, no not a horse's bottom, but the fact that this wonderful eclectic mix of sports gets such a high profile and generates so much enthusiasm. Beijing has exceeded all our expectations .. just imagine what we can achieve on our home turf.
So how can we keep the momentum going for the next four years? Well we ask the woman in charge of that, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell. She'll actually be fast asleep in Beijing by the time we are on air - but through the wonders of television we will have spoken to her beforehand.
Ok - time to drag Al away from the jumping horses.
See you at 6.
Salma and Al
