Murdered soldier Lee Rigby’s mum Lyn and sister Courtney on living with their grief and the Manchester bombing

LEE RIGBY'S FAMILY PAY TRIBUTE TO THE MURDERED SOLDIER

Murdered soldier Lee Rigby’s mother and sister - Lyn and Courtney - joined Andrea, Janet, Linda and Kelli on the show to talk about living with their grief and the effect of the Manchester bombing on their family.

Lee’s mother Lyn said, 'We’ve learnt to live, how to get through the grief, it’s heart-breaking every single day. The grief doesn’t go away but you do learn to wake up with it, put your mask on and get through every day.'

After the Manchester bombing happened on the anniversary of Lee’s murder, the family were left in shock. Lyn said: 'It hit me hard. We’d been out celebrating Lee’s anniversary. We’d been out for a family meal and having a few drinks. Courtney came downstairs and told me about the bombing. It hit me so hard. We actually stayed up crying all night.'

She added: 'Seeing mums pleading for the safety of their daughters it put me right back to when Lee was killed, not knowing if it was Lee or not. I saw a lady that was pleading for her daughter and it was hours after the bombing and she didn’t know if she was alive. I found out she was a local lady, so we went up to meet Charlotte and Paul [Olivia Campbell’s parents]. Just to give her a hug and say, "I know what you’re going through".'

'I’d got to the point where one night I just found myself at Lee’s grave on my hands and knees crying my eyes out. I couldn’t cope with it, I didn’t want to live without Lee. After the Manchester bombings that decided it, we have to move, we didn’t feel safe.'

Lyn also talked about the day Lee was murdered outside his barracks in London, explaining she watched the horrific murder unfold on TV before finding out it was her son Lee.

'I witnessed all Lee’s murder on the TV as I was going into work and my daughter had phoned me to tell me about this soldier being killed,' Lyn said. 'I went into work and watched the whole horrific murder as they were showing every little detail. Even them dragging him off the pavement into the road by his leg. I wasn’t sure, I had an inkling, but I wasn’t sure then that it was Lee [...] we didn’t find out until 12 hours afterwards.”

Lee’s sister Courtney spoke about how she wants to study criminology, saying: 'When it happened, you want to understand what’s going on in their head and how they can think something like that is right and how differently they can think and what makes them think like that.'

Discussing the foundation they have set up in Lee’s honour, Lyn said: 'I’m proud of all of my four daughters and my husband, they all got me through and are very supportive to this day. We found that there was no help out there for us. To group as a family, to grieve as a family.'

'We’ve set up the Lee Rigby Foundation as a legacy for Lee and keeping his name out there. It’s like a retreat, to get away as grieving family, military families and veterans and their families if they’re stressed, they can just come away to the countryside.'

Watch the video to see the full interview with Lyn and Courtney.