Brown pays tribute to his 'hero' wife Sarah

Gordon Brown hailed his wife Sarah as his "hero" yesterday as he spoke about how the couple coped with the death of their first child Jennifer.

Sarah famously introduced the Prime Minister on to the stage at last September's Labour conference in Brighton as "my hero, my husband", and Mr Brown returned the compliment yesterday in a highly personal interview with London's Evening Standard newspaper.

Mr Brown said that Jennifer's death at the age of only 10 days in 2002 had changed his life forever. He constantly thought about what his daughter – who would now be aged eight – would be doing if she had survived.

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His experience changed the way he deals with bereaved people, including the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

"I know about death," said Mr Brown. "There is a finality about death and if someone loses someone that is close to them you are never the same again. You cannot be the same person as you were before, particularly if that someone is young or, in our case, a child.

"You are always thinking of what could have been. Every year you are thinking of that daughter who was about to go to school or about to write for the first time, about to read, go to their first film or party, be a teenager. It changes your life forever."

Mr Brown said he and Sarah had not understood until a few days after Jennifer's premature birth that there was nothing that could be done to save her.

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The couple a charity to support research into premature birth.

Mr Brown said of his wife: "She is my hero. No doubt about it – her beauty and her quiet dignified way of dealing with every challenge that we face."