{"id":927808,"date":"2026-04-30T04:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/927808\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T04:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T04:30:16","slug":"birkenhead-mum-answered-call-from-her-son-but-it-was-police-on-the-other-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/927808\/","title":{"rendered":"Birkenhead mum answered call from her son but it was police on the other end"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlie Stewart-Birks has suffered life-changing injuries following the incident in Birkenhead\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Charlie Stewart-Birks(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

A mum has issued an urgent plea after her son suffered serious injuries in a crash. Charlie Stewart-Birks, 13, was riding his bike on Borough Road in Birkenhead<\/a> at around 6.15pm on Sunday, April 19 when he was hit by a car close to the junction of Charing Cross and Whetstone Lane, where YMCA Wirral<\/a> is located.<\/p>\n

His mum, Sonia Stewart, was at the family home in Birkenhead <\/a>when she received a call from Charlie\u2019s number but a woman answered instead.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the ECHO<\/a>, Sonia, 44, said: \u201cThey said to me, it\u2019s Merseyside Police, and I said, what\u2019s he done, what\u2019s he done?<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, he\u2019s been involved in a collision, you need to get the YMCA now. I got a couple of seconds down my road and I just saw the police tape, so I had to follow this diversion. I pulled up and there were crowds of people. I\u2019ve never seen so many police cars and ambulances. It was horrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Merseyside Police told the ECHO last week<\/a> that Charlie was fighting for his life. The driver stopped at the scene and assisted officers with enquiries, with detectives appealing for eyewitness and footage of the incident to come forward.<\/p>\n

Today, the force confirmed there are no further updates on the case at this time.<\/p>\n

Charlie\u2019s condition has stabilised but Sonia says her son, who is a massive Everton FC fan, has been left with life-changing injuries. She said: \u201cHe came out of ICU yesterday, so he spent a good eight, nine days in the intensive care unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t put into words how amazing the staff in Alder Hey Hospital are (and) the air ambulance, I think they saved his life. We’ve had no words or anything out of him yet.<\/p>\n

“We’re getting hand signs, like a thumbs up. He’s still in his bed. The hand signs are positive things in the right direction, so you\u2019ve just got to cling to them. (The doctors) described it as a catastrophic brain injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie, who loves going out on his bike, wasn\u2019t wearing a helmet when he was hit. Sonia has urged any children who go out on their bikes to wear one, even if they feel pressured from their friends not to.<\/p>\n

Sonia said: \u201cCharlie was one of the lads and you never think it\u2019s going to happen to them. I just hope it never happens to anyone else. He’s got cuts and bruises all over his body, but he took the full brute force impact to his head.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Charlie Stewart-Birks was riding his bike on Borough Road in Birkenhead when he was hit(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The incident has also impacted Charlie\u2019s dad Steven Birks, as well as his sisters Leah, 23, and Lottie, six, and brother Lewis, 19. Sonia and Steven are both self-employed, meaning they are both losing money as they spend time in hospital with Charlie.<\/p>\n

Sonia said: \u201cLast night was the first time (we left his bedside). Charlie’s got a younger sister, she’s been so strong, but in the blink of an eye she\u2019s lost her mum and dad and her brother because none of us are there. I had to go home and try and get some normality in life for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe crowdfunding appeal set up five days ago to relieve this financial pressure has already raised more than \u00a33,000. Sonia is overwhelmed by the kindness shown to the family during this time. She said: \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable. And do you know what, it’s not just the financial support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of people who have reached out via social media, via our personal phone, via extended family, it’s just phenomenal and I’ll be eternally grateful to everyone for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement issued on Monday, April 20, Detective Sergeant Andy Roper from Merseyside Police’s matrix serious collision investigation unit said: \u201cThis is a tragic incident which has left a 13-year-old boy in hospital with serious life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our priority to get answers for his family and I appeal to the public to help us do that by contacting us if you have information which will assist the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe there were several other motorists who were driving past at the time who could have vital information to help our ongoing enquiries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you saw the collision, the lead up to it or have anything else that you feel we need to be aware of, please get in touch as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, if you have dashcam fitted in your vehicle and were driving in that area at the time of the collision, please review it in case you captured anything that could assist.<\/p>\n

\u201cFront and rear cameras can often capture evidence that you may be totally unaware of. Any help we receive, no matter how insignificant it may seem, could help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone who witnessed the incident, or has information or footage that could assist police with enquiries, is urged to contact the force on (0151) 777 5747, email sciu@merseyside.police.uk, or via @MerPolCC on social media, quoting reference 26000215341.<\/p>\n

You can find out more about the fundraiser here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Stewart-Birks has suffered life-changing injuries following the incident in Birkenhead Charlie Stewart-Birks(Image: Supplied) A mum has issued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[2644,748,107723,393,4884,105,179,16,15],"class_list":["post-927808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-birkenhead","tag-britain","tag-collisions","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-health","tag-liverpool","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}