Emily Parker spoke with Brenda Hale about the day she found out her husband had died in Afghanistan, how she survived the shock and grief, and her life in politics since then.

Brenda: Every day is a challenge. Even now, eight years on, it's a challenge.

I was incredibly angry. Anger like I have never experienced in my life rocked me to my core. I was a Christian wife, praying for a Christian husband, in the way that the Bible instructs Christians to pray for, "Ask and it will be given, seek and you shall find." I prayed specifically for angels to protect Mark's feet from IEDs. Mark didn't step on the IED; another soldier stepped on the IED. There were three killed in Mark's blast, back in 2009.

The anger that set in said that I had married a soldier but my children hadn't. I felt that God was testing them at such a young age when He didn't even test His own son at that age. So the anger sort of propelled me through the next couple of months. It was like, how dare God do this to me? But the juxtaposition of that was I was incredibly grateful because of Mark's faith. I knew exactly where Mark was. I know and I firmly believe that Mark shut his eyes in this world, while he was bleeding to death, and as he opened them in the next second, that God, Jesus and angels were waiting there for him. To be able to pray with my daughters that night "Thank you Jesus for taking Daddy into heaven" was a huge comfort, because we all believed it. I think because Mark's faith was so strong and I trusted Mark, he was a hugely intelligent man, and so for his faith to come from research and from reading and from all types of literature across all the major faiths, I was so secure in his knowledge. It bolstered me nearly better than the Bible, because I knew Mark better.

Even today, as we progress, and my children are now grown up, his faith helps still ground our own and his faith has been a huge example. Because this was a man who personified his faith in Christ and his belief in an eternal life, because he walked into that bomb to rescue two soldiers knowing he may not come out. Now if that is not true faith, unshakeable faith in God, I don't know what is. I couldn't have walked into that bomb. I couldn't have done it. I would have called for help. But he did. He did it in faith, that should anything happen, he knew where he was going and he knew that we knew that his faith was so strong that I, his wife and mother to his children, would know exactly what had happened to him. Because we are secure in the knowledge that he is in heaven, that gives us the strength to go on every day and in the darkest days as well.

Emily: Obviously there are elements of grief that do not leave you even now, but for you there has been a catalyst in your life. You have made a choice to not let Mark's death be the end of everything, and you have chosen to make a difference from where you guys have journeyed. Can you tell me what life now looks like for you?

Brenda: I became heavily involved in politics shortly after Mark's death. The MOD placed a safety net should death in action, death in service happen, or you have life-changing injuries, but there were holes in that safety net, and I fell through every hole.

I was a wife of 22 years so I wasn't scared of the system. As I began to navigate my way through that system with help from my local MP and other bereaved parents, I realised there were more and more people falling through this net.

I guess I used the anger that I had from Mark's death to try and look after the people who were falling through the safety net the same as I was, so I began a political career. I was elected in 2011 to the Northern Ireland Assembly, as part of the Democratic Unionist Party, the DUP, and re-elected again in 2016. Although I lost my seat in the 'Snap Election' of March 2017. But the fight for the Military Covenant still goes on.

The Military Covenant, for those who aren't aware of it, is an agreement between the Armed Forces and the Government. The Government had said that they would give the Armed Forces everything they need to carry out an action that the Government send them to do, and in return should anything happen to service personnel while they are in action, that the Government will look after them. So, should they return home injured, PTSD, or should they be killed in action, the Government will look after their families. That's a very basic version of the Military Covenant, but clearly that isn't all in place.

Mark's passion within the army was to look after his boys. I've seen his boys coming back from Afghanistan with no arms, no legs, and some of them have left their minds there. I've seen them in pain. I thought somebody needs to try and help them access mental health care, medical care, education, and for the grieving families.

In my case they had lost Mark's will, which left me without any money for 18 months. I had a mortgage to pay and school fees to pay, and whenever you're in a moment of grief and catastrophic life-changing time, you need to know that the basics are being taken care of. But in my case I wasn't able to grieve properly because I had no money. I had to try and find a way to live. It feels like the MOD robbed me of my grief and I just didn't want that happening to others.

In a way, to honour Mark, I took on his mantle of trying to look after his boys, or anybody in the military community who needs help. Mark died helping to save his boys and if I can keep his memory alive and honour him, and honour his faith by trying to look after his boys, and get the Government to listen and to implement the Military Covenant across the United Kingdom, so in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, then I feel his death won't have been in vain.

Emily: Looking back at the things that you've stood for, being part of the National Assembly, how does that make you feel, seeing the difference that you've made?

Brenda: Emily, I try not to look at the bigger picture, cos I think it would overwhelm me. I just know I didn't do this by myself. God's hand has been in it all the way.