Friends from school days remember Shaquan Sammy-Plummer at a party on Saturday to mark his birthday [Vistolia Photography]

THE school friends of a boy who was killed a decade ago surprised his family with a gala event to mark his birthday at the weekend.

Shaquan Sammy-Plummer was 17 when he was fatally stabbed outside a party in Enfield in January 2015.

Shaquan was fatally stabbed 10 years ago

Shaquan’s childhood friends threw a party for his birthday at the Ecology Pavilion in Mile End Park, east London, on Saturday to remember him 10 years on.

His friend Tobi Odulaja told the Tribune how the big celebration was eight months in the making.

Mr Odulaja said: “When Shaquan passed it brought us all closer together. We all went to the same secondary school and all of us are still in contact now – including Shaquan there’s about 26 of us.

“We thought this would make his family happy and we wanted to pay for everything. How could we charge the family? That wouldn’t be right.”

Shaquan’s friends attended different colleges in the LaSWAP consortium, including Acland Burghley in Tufnell Park and La Sainte Union, where he was a student.

They would travel to school together, meet at a cafe in the mornings and again during lunch.

Mr Odulaja said: “Shaquan was silent but he just had an aura about him, he just brings everyone together.

“That we all still see each other, it just shows what he meant to everyone. He just had something about him.

“The last time I could have spoken to Shaquan he called my phone and I didn’t actually answer and he passed a few days later.

“I could have spoken to one of my closest friends for the last time but I was occupied with something else.

“I hold that memory very close. That’s why I go so hard on keeping Shaquan’s memory alive.”

Shaquan’s friends – now in their late twenties – told his mother, Jessica Plummer, they were planning something but kept the details secret until she arrived on the night.

There was food, music, speeches, and even a life-size cut-out of Shaquan.

Tobi Odulaja, pictured with Shaquan’s mother, Jessica Plummer, said: ‘That we still see each other shows what he meant to everyone.’

Ms Plummer told the Tribune: “When I got there I got the biggest shock of my life. When I saw the picture of Shaquan standing there, it’s like ‘Oh my god, is he alive?’

“It was a surprise for me. They did absolutely amazing and these are children Shaquan’s age. They’ve done us proud.”

The event raised more than £1,000 for the Shaquan Sammy-Plummer Foundation, set up by Ms Plummer, who tells her son’s story to young people in schools in an effort to protect young people from knife crime.

Ms Plummer also gave out awards at the event, including to the mothers of other knife crime victims in Islington and the police officer who supported her after Shaquan’s death, who was at the gala with his wife.