'Screaming on a mountain helped me mourn my husband'

Adele Cook says the pain of losing her husband never goes away but screaming out "I love you Cookie, now and forever," at the top of Yr Wyddfa, also known as Snowdon, gave her "great relief".

James Cook, 40, died after being stabbed on a night out in Newark, Nottinghamshire, on 1 May.

Adele climbed the mountain with family and friends in his memory on 14 September.

"I said to our youngest daughter, 'this is the closest we'll get to your dad at the top of the Earth, close to heaven'," she said.

Adele said the seven-hour climb had been "emotional" but did help relieve some of the pain that "never goes away".

"It was great to get up there with them, and we took a laminated photo up there and buried it under a rock," she said.

The family trek also raised money towards bleed kits to be put in Newark in memory of Mr Cook.

Adele said being told by police her husband had died had hit her like a "steam train" and changed her family's lives forever.

"I've got three children now that are growing up without their dad, they're going to be walking down the aisle without their dad, they're going to have Christmas without their dad.

"The pain never goes away, it's a life sentence for us," she said.

Adele said it was her eldest daughter, from a previous relationship, who suggested she should climb up a mountain and scream to let her emotions out.

"I was holding all this grief in, and I thought, I can't show this in front of the kids because I've got to be strong for them. And she said, 'why don't we go camping in Snowdonia?'

"She said, 'you can get to the top mum, and you can scream your heart out'."

She was joined on the ascent up Yr Wyddfa by 10 others, including the three children she had with Mr Cook, her eldest daughter and her own sister.

Now that the climb is complete, Adele said she wanted to further keep her husband's memory alive by helping the community.

She will be starting a new charity, called Cookie's Crusaders, to fund the bleed kits and provide educational sessions for children.

"I just wanted to navigate that anger into something good," she added.

Brandon Byrne, 22, of Winston Court, Newark, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Cook and another charge of possessing an offensive weapon in public.

His trial at Nottingham Crown Court is expected to start in November.

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