Following the horrific homicide of her daughter, Di Parkes found herself looking after her two young grandchildren and setting up a charity to help other children who have been bereaved.

’I seriously don’t know how I would have coped with losing Jo if I hadn’t had Alex and Katie to look after. They gave me a real zest to get them up and going so that Jo would have been proud of them.

’They gave me a real purpose.’ says Di.

When Di’s daughter, Joanna Brown, was killed in 2007 and her children came to the island, Di was 71 and her husband, Fred, was 76. They were living what Di describes as ’an idyllic life’, enjoying their retirement.

Suddenly she found herself back on the school run and making all the other adjustments that come with having two children, then aged nine and 10, joining the household.

Di recalls: ’Before the children came to me I was lady captain of Ramsey Ladies Golf Club and very involved with the golf club and I was a member of a bridge club and played bridge with a friend in the evenings.

’Of course I couldn’t do that any more because I was putting children to bed - I had to get babysitters and all that sort of thing again if we went out - even just going off for a walk with the dogs.

’I always had to make sure that everybody knew where I was going. That was really fundamentally important that the children always knew where I was.

’It was a massive adjustment on both sides and Fred has been absolutely fantastic about it. Somehow it all worked out.’

Di sent Alex and Katie to the Buchan, Jo’s old school, and then to King William’s College. With two traumatised children it was, she says, ’difficult for the teachers, difficult for the children and difficult for us’ but she adds:

’I always remember at school saying they must be treated like every other child.

’The difficulty being a granny is, when they come with their mothers to visit you, you tend to spoil them a bit.

’Then you suddenly find you’re in that role now and you think: "I mustn’t spoil them" but it’s hard when they’ve gone through what they’ve gone through.’

She’s clearly done a great job: Alex, who will be 18 in December, is in his last year at school and has been looking at universities. Katie has just done well in her iGCSE exams: both of them, Di says, are very artistic.

But Di has done even more than give her grandchildren a loving and supportive home. Along with Jo’s best friend, Hetti, she set up the Joanna Simpson Foundation to help and support children who have been bereaved through homicide or domestic abuse.

In January this year the Duchess of Cornwall, who is involved with the Safe Lives charity helping victims of domestic abuse, met Hetti and Di and was reduced to tears listening to what had happened to Jo. She later described Di as ’an incredibly brave lady’ and invited her to a luncheon at Clarence House attended by a number of celebrities like Alesha Dixon, who came from a background of domestic abuse.

Di recalls: ’The Duchess came up to me and she said: "You are the person that made me want to take this on".’

The Joanna Simpson Foundation has given money to help the Anna Freud Centre in the UK with a pioneering project that aims to reduce post traumatic stress in children by 50%.

Following two high profile events in the island which have raised a significant sum Di also wants to put money into helping youngsters on the island. She said: ’Here, fortunately, homicide doesn’t occur often. We could help children who have been bereaved due to other causes.

’Jo absolutely adored children and desperately wanted her own. It’s so sad that I’m the one looking after them not her, but we want to make sure that some good can come from evil with work done in her name.’

Thinking about her grandchildren now and the journey the family has come on Di adds: ’You get these wonderful moments when they do well at something and you think: "Oh Jo, I’d love to tell you about this!" I know she would be very proud of them.’

View Di’s charity website: www.jsfoundation.org.uk