David Beckham yesterday joined the campaign against the knife crime epidemic in Britain by revealing a shocking memory from his childhood.

In a bid to highlight the horrors of these crimes, Beckham related the tragic story of how the brother of a close friend of his was left paralysed after an attack.

Beckham told how he was just 13 years old when the dreams of promising young football player, Glen Fielder, were taken from him.

He said: "He was about to sign a contract with Latent Orient. But one day he was walking the streets, saw a fight, went over to help, got stabbed in the back and was paralysed.

"No one wants to see the devastation I saw my friend and his family go through. You don't expect situations that are happening whereby people go to school in the morning and then you never see them again."

Beckham, who was joined by fellow football stars Rio Ferdinand and David James, added: "We have got to help. It is something that as footballers and people and as a team we can get involved in.

"We have got a voice that kids listen to and we believe that things can change."

Last night, a friend of both Beckham and Fielder said: "Everyone who knew him remembers it even 20 years on.

"He was a little bit older than David, about 13 or 14 and he was a really nice lad and a promising football talent.

"He was just an innocent bystander, waiting for his girlfriend to come out of a youth disco in Chingford.

"But these lads came over, and at some point he got stabbed in the back and was left paralysed.

"I never saw him walk again after that night. He was always in a wheelchair."

Ferdinand, who grew up in Peckham, south London, is a campaigner against knife violence, being one of the founding members of the Damilola Taylor Trust, established in 2000 after the 10-year-old was killed in an attack.

Ferdinand also remembered the death of schoolmate Stephen Lawrence.

He said: "I went to the same school as Stephen and there was a chilling atmosphere. One day the guy was enjoying life and talking about his A-levels and the next day he was gone."