ONE of the biggest personal milestones for Jacqui this year has been climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

She undertook the trek in October to raise cash for the RAF Benevolent Fund.

She said: "I will be eternally grateful to them. They did a lot of thinking for me at a time when I just couldn't.

"They allowed me to spend precious time with the girls and allowed us to support each other without me having to worry about the everyday living things."

She reached the summit on October 10.

Speaking about the trek, she said: "It was the first time I'd had 'Jacqui time' for over 20 years.

"I missed the girls but I couldn't allow myself to worry about them. I had to completely switch off.

"I think it would have been a lot more difficult if I hadn't been doing it for the reasons I was doing it.

"More than anything it was just to show Gary that he wasn't the only one who could do something challenging and achieve it.

"When I got to the top there was a feeling of immense satisfaction that I had not let anybody down."

But the achievement was tinged with sadness, as Jacqui tied a bookmark she had made after Gary's death to a wooden post at the summit.

She said: "I put the bookmark on the post and I saw him looking back at me. All the happiness I felt was replaced by an incredible sense of loneliness, unhappiness and heartbreak.

"It was a really difficult moment but at the same time I got a sense of peace."