A newspaper’s campaign to reduce knife crime in a Staffordshire town has been backed by actress Brooke Kinsella, whose brother was stabbed to death in 2008.

The Burton Mail launched its Safer Burton campaign in January with a number of aims including educating children not to carry weapons.

The ex-EastEnders star and leading anti-knife crime campaigner’s brother Ben was stabbed to death in Islington.

In an interview with Mail reporter Katie Bowler, Brooke said Safer Burton was ‘brave and potentially life-saving’.

When asked what her message would be to the people of Burton about knife crime, she said: “You may think knife crime will never affect you but the more people who stand up and say enough is enough the easier it will be to make a difference.

“We need to speak out for everyone we have lost to knife crime and with your help it may be possible to make those in authority start to listen.”

As well as support from the local community the initiative has been backed by Staffordshire Police who held a knife amnesty as part of the Safer Burton campaign. This saw 150 potentially lethal weapons taken off the streets in a month.

Funds were also raised by local councillors for a mobile scanner for use outside nightclubs to detect whether people are carrying weapons.

The newspaper launched the campaign with with Yvonne Upton, whose son Connor was stabbed to death outside a Burton nightclub.

Editor Kevin Booth said the death of one young man in 2010 was a tragedy they never want to happen again.

He said: “Should our campaign be successful, the long-term aim is to roll out Safer Burton to help tackle other issues including car crime, drug abuse and anti-social behaviour.”

A separate campaign by the newspaper to save a mental health unit in the town has not proved as successful.

Save our Stanhope launched in October after plans were announced to axe all of the beds at the Margaret Stanhope Centre, but health chiefs have now voted to close the centre.