Angie's comforting Lee Rigby's mum

THE mother of Drummer Lee Rigby, who was attacked and killed in a London street, is being comforted by the mother of an East Yorkshire soldier shot dead in Afghanistan.

Lee, 25, was attacked with a cleaver in Woolwich in May.

Gregg Stone, 22, of Atwick, near Hornsea, was gunned down rescuing a kidnapped Afghan policeman last June.

Now, Gregg's mother Angie has revealed she is in contact with Lee's mum Lyn Rigby, of Middleton, Greater Manchester.

Angie, 56, said: "She is a lovely woman and something has happened to us both that neither of us deserved.

"Lyn is devastated, as you would expect, at losing Lee. She will never get over it.

"She said to me there's still a big police presence."

Angie says she is struggling to make sense of the cold-blooded killing of the soldier.

She said: "There was no reason for Lee's death.

"With Gregg, we knew there was a risk he would not come back from Afghanistan and you sort of accept that risk.

"But it was different with Lee. He was not in uniform. He was not carrying a gun. For all intent and purposes, he was not a soldier that day."

Angie first contacted Lyn after spotting her in a Facebook group set up for parents of dead servicemen and women.

She said: "I often go on there to read the messages but it can be depressing, so I don't spend too long in there.

"I don't reply publicly to messages but when I saw Lyn on there, I decided to send her a private message.

"We've chatted online and exchanged phone numbers."

Angie says it sometimes helps to talk to others who have lost a child.

"We are all members of a club no one wants to join," she said.

"There are no practical measures that any of us can take to make life less painful – nothing makes losing a child any easier to deal with.

"It's just not the natural order of things – you are not meant to outlive your child.

"Eventually, you learn to live with what has happened. You carry on for your family's sake and you go through the motions."

Angie says the events of June 3, last year, when Gregg, a private in 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment (3 YORKS), was killed, have still not sunk in.

"It's a year since I lost my son and still, when I wake up, it takes a split second to remember what's happened and each morning it's like going back to square one," she said.

Afghan veteran Lee was a drummer in 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment Fusiliers.

Michael Adebolajo, 28, of Romford in Essex, and Michael Adebowale, 22, of Greenwich, south east London, are accused of Lee's murder.