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Brendan cox© Photo: ITV

Jo Cox's husband Brendan speaks of dealing with grief after a terror attack

Monday's Manchester attack left 22 people dead

Sharnaz Shahid
Deputy Online Editor
May 25, 2017
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The widow of murdered MP Jo Cox has offered advice on how to deal with grief in the aftermath of the Monday's Manchester terror attack, which left 22 people dead and 64 injured. Appearing on Thursday's Good Morning Britain, Brendan Cox told Ben Shepherd and Kate Garraway that the country must "unite" in order to defeat terrorists. "I think in the immediate aftermath of an event like that you retreat into this sense of shock and hollowness and it's very hard to understand what has happened," he said. "That will be even more the case with an eight-year-old kid, it’s just incredible and horrific."

Jo Cox's husband Brendan appeared on Thursday's Good Morning Britain

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Recalling the moment he found out the news, Brendan shared his own experience of being the victim of a terrorist attack. He explained: "I just felt lost. The scale of it and the supreme evil of it. I think one of the things that is lost sometimes, we jump into talking about what's next and what the implications are. It's completely understandable but every single one of those lives is incredibly special and taking enough time to really mourn them and to think about them as individuals. It's even harder when there's an attack on this scale because it's very hard to tell all the stories about those amazing individuals, I think we have a duty to try and do that."

manchester© Photo: Getty Images

Monday's horrific incident left 22 dead and 64 injured

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The father-of-two lost his wife in a horrific attack in West Yorkshire last year in Birstall. He said that the country should now "come together", adding: "I do think there is a moment in our country at the moment where people feel that there is this pressure, that there is this narrative about hatred, that there are events like this that tear us apart, and I always asks myself, what is it the terrorists or the extremists want us to do? What they want us to do, what terrorists want us to do, is fall apart, to blame each other, to turn on ourselves. Our response must always be to ask what terrorists want and then do exactly the opposite. So for me trying to bring our country together again at moments like this, in order to defeat the terrorists and the extremist feels like one of the most important things to do."

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