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A grisly scar across his stomach is a lifelong reminder for MP Stephen Timms of the day a student tried to murder him.

A fraction deeper, or millimetres either side, and he might not be here at all.

But the politician, 63, bears no malice and today says he would like to look into his would-be killer’s eyes to understand fully her reasons for the attack.

Roshonara Choudhry, 29, is serving 15 years for attempted murder after plunging a three-inch blade into Stephen’s stomach at his London constituency office on May 14, 2010.

Stephen is talking about the attack as part of an appeal to raise funds for the hospital trauma centre that saved him.

(Image: John Alevroyiannis)

He says: “For me, forgiveness requires communication. I told the police I’d quite like to see her in prison and talk to her about it. They advised against, so it never happened.”

Choudhry told police she carried out her attack because Stephen had backed the Iraq War.

But the MP adds: “In the end, stabbing me achieved nothing at all.

“I’ve always been puzzled about why she did it. I would have liked the opportunity to find out more about that.

“I’d be interested to have a discussion about whether murder of political representatives is really a way to resolve these differences. Isn’t it better to resolve them by voting?”

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Standing in his office at Portcullis House, Westminster, he speaks in a very matter-of-fact way about what happened.

But one thing is clear – he could not be more grateful to be alive.

It’s why he has become an ambassador for the Barts Charity Trauma Appeal.

In partnership with the Sunday Mirror, it aims to raise £1million for the trauma centre which worked so brilliantly to keep Stephen alive.

He remembers the events leading up to his stabbing very clearly.

(Image: Julia Quenzler) (Image: PA)

Choudhry, then 21, booked an appointment to discuss an employment issue with Stephen at his constituency surgery at the Beckton Globe in Newham, East London.

He recalls: “It was a pretty horrible experience. It was the Friday a week after the General Election in 2010 and I was all over the place.

“We lost the election. I had been a Treasury Minister before but wasn’t any more, so was getting used to my reduced state.

“I was also late as I had left my laptop lead at home, so it was all a bit frantic from the start.”

Choudhry approached the MP – who was standing behind a desk – after her name was called out.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

What happened next is a blur. But CCTV showed Choudhry smiling before she twice thrust the knife into the MP.

She had been carrying two knives – in case one broke during the attack.

Stephen’s assistant, Andrew Bazeley, grabbed the weapons from her.

Bizarrely, Choudhry then sat down and calmly waited for the police to arrive.

The MP wasn’t aware that he had been knifed. He says: “It just felt as though I’d been punched. But when I lifted up my jumper and saw a lot of blood I realised then that she had stabbed me. I felt faint.”

(Image: Daily Mirror)

He was later told that had Choudhry attacked him with the larger of the two knives he would almost certainly be dead.

Surgeons at The Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, East London, cut between his two stab wounds so they could enter his abdomen and repair it.

Stephen’s surgeon, Lt Col Nigel Tai, admits he had a lucky escape.

He explains: “A knife injury to the area where Stephen was struck only had to be a centimetre or two deeper, or angled slightly differently, for the blade to cut the main blood vessel to the abdomen, its branches or the main vessel draining the liver.

“Such injuries can cause death in minutes. It was pure chance the blade did not damage these vessels.”

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

When Stephen came round, the relieved face of his wife Hui-Leng Lim, 64, was staring back at him.

Stephen left hospital after five days and returned to hosting constituency surgeries just a month later.

And today he insists that he doesn’t feel hatred towards his attacker.

He goes on: “I certainly don’t bear any ill will to her after all this time. My life was saved because of the expertise of doctors and nurses at The Royal London Major Trauma Centre.

“Without their help I might not be here today. I want other victims of knife crime to be saved as well.”

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Barts Charity hopes the £1million appeal will boost treatment and research at The Royal London, in partnership with Queen Mary University London’s Centre for Trauma Sciences.

And as knife crime surges across the UK – there were 40,000 attacks last year – their work is more relevant than ever.

Martin Griffiths, 52, a consultant vascular and trauma surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, says: “The numbers are increasing year on year. Victims are getting younger and younger.”

He says that 30 years ago, the average age of a knife victim was 29. Now it is 18 – and he routinely cares for children 16 and younger.

Stephen blasts cuts to police budgets for making it harder to combat knife crime.

And calling for donations to the trauma fund, he adds: “We all need to get behind it.

“They deal with a lot of victims of trauma and they do a fantastic job. I strongly support the campaign and I’m grateful to the Sunday Mirror for backing it. We want lives to be saved.”

£1m drive to aid trauma heroes who saved him

Trauma claims nearly 17,000 lives a year in the UK – 46 a day.

They could be victims of car accidents, falls, assault, terrorist attacks – or, like MP Stephen, stabbings. About 70,000 victims are left disabled every year.

But while trauma is the biggest killer of young people under 40 across the country, it receives only one per cent of medical research funding.

Barts Charity has so far helped fund vital research into issues such as preventing blood loss – the most common cause of death in trauma patients.

The findings are being used to guide clinical practice in Britain and around the world.

Campaigners hope to improve care by funding a “passport” to help trauma patients understand and co-ordinate their treatment better.

An “After Trauma” phone app would provide practical and emotional support to patients long after they have left hospital.

So far the appeal is a third of the way towards its £1million target.